


Idir Muir, Idir Cloch

by DarkInuFan



Series: The Selkie, The Dragon, and Their Queen [1]
Category: Tales of Arcadia (Cartoons), Trollhunters - Daniel Kraus & Guillermo del Toro
Genre: ASL, Dragons, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Jewish Toby, Jim knows irish, M/M, Magical Theory, Most of the time, Multi, Mythical Beings & Creatures, NaNoWriMo 2019, RIP Barbara can't cook, Selkies, Treasure Hunting, Troll Jim Lake Jr., Worldbuilding, chef Jimbo makes his triumphant return, excessive mention of rule #3, half breed, mention of background characters that may or may not show up in future fics, their relationship is too perfect, they actually talk things out, those poor marshmallows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-01
Updated: 2019-12-05
Packaged: 2021-01-16 05:22:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 43,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21265739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkInuFan/pseuds/DarkInuFan
Summary: Between Sea, Between Stone"Being a selkie without their coat is like… is like when the amulet was sitting in the sunlight after Kanjigar died. It's right there, but you can't reach it. It's like… if your books were in the sunlight. They're right there, you remember what they feel like, smell like, what they say inside. Being by the ocean without my skin is like finally getting those books back, but opening those pages to find them blank. It hurts. You'll live, but the pain never quite goes away."NaNoWriMo challenge 2019





	1. Troll

**Author's Note:**

> I will warn you now, this will be a multi-story collection I will be working on here. No, I have no clue how long each story will be, but I'm going to chip away as much as I can during NaNoWriMo. Reviews and ideas are Highly Appreciated, so please, speak up. So far, I have about 6-7+ stories that I want to write in this series, all varying length. I will also say this now: what I post will only be lightly edited and, honestly, probably not go through any final polishing unless there's some real glaring issues. 
> 
> See ya'll on the other side!

“Barbara, something is wrong with master Jim! It is not any troll ailment that I have ever seen before and he insists that you would know what to do, though I would not have the foggiest how since you are a human doctor and he is… not.” 

Barbara bit her lip, already having an idea as she cut her eyes toward her wall calendar and then to the locked trunk in her closet, but wanting to make sure, just in case. “What are his symptoms?” 

“He is listless, not eating anything that we offer him, and just stares out of the cave mouth if he even manages to get out of his nest. Now, I know that he has had a hard time accepting a troll diet, but he is avoiding even his favorites now.”

“Have you tried to offer him raw fish?” She asked in her most clinical tone, digging out her key ring and searching for a particular one.

“It is not something we trolls eat often, so I have not thought to, no.” Blinky was confused, but trusted his foster son’s mother to know some things that he would not. “I will try to offer him some later.” 

“Please do. It’s something that Jim likes to eat when he gets a certain way. And tell me if he does eat something. I will need to know so we will know where to go from there.” Finding the small key, she pulled out the trunk and unlocked it, stroking the dark fur blanket tucked carefully inside. “With his transformation, I wasn’t sure if this would happen any more, but it looks like it might be.”

“And what would ‘this’ be, Barbara?” There was only innocent curiosity in Blinky’s voice, no judgement whatsoever.

“Just tell me if you can get Jim to eat anything and I might be able to tell you. If not, we will just have to go from there. Either way, I think a visit would not be a bad idea. Toby told me that you finally got the gyre up and working, so we would be able to come as soon as I can convince Walt or Aaarrrgghh to drive us.” 

“Yes, I do think it would be for the best. Even if it ends up being a simple solution, a visit from you and dear Aaarrrgghh would not be remiss.”

“Then I will see you in a few hours, Mr. Blinky. Try to get Jim to eat something before I get there.” 

“As you order, Dr. Barbara.” Blinky signed off before hanging up his phone. Sighing and giving her face a good rub, she tossed her own phone onto the bed and pulled out the dark blanket, the same shade as Jim’s hair used to be. Spreading it out on her bed, she inspected it for small flaws. It looked a bit rough in patches, scars leaving bald lines and the overall sheen was dulling. Lovingly petting the fur into the best semblance of order as she could, she dug out her phone once again, as well as a fur brush from the bottom of the trunk. 

“Toby,” Barbara smiled, hearing her foster son’s enthusiastic greeting, “how would you feel like going to visit Jim?” While Jim was the responsible one, Toby was the light that spread over everything. Taking the chance to talk to the boy, she gave the fur a through brushing, bringing some of the shine back. It would still need some real care, but this would do for the next little while. They would agree to meet and head to the gyre after dark, giving Barbara time to get things together. 

Carefully packing the blanket back into the trunk and locking it securely, her next call was to Ophelia and Javier, to see if they were willing to take care of Wally for a night or a weekend while they visited Jim. While he could, she still wasn’t comfortable letting the toddler ride in the gyre until they could either rig a harness for his carrier or he was big enough to know to hold on tight.

Now, all she needed was to pack, tell Walter, and inform work that she had a family emergency and would be unavailable for the weekend that she wasn’t scheduled in the first place. The hospital had gotten better after her breakdown the previous spring, but she still ended up pulling more overtime shifts than strictly reasonable.

* * *

“Smells like human Jim.” Aaarrrgghh greeted Barbara with a gentle headbutt, getting a good whiff of the trunk. “Fresh.” Which was confusing, since the boy’s scent had changed with Merlin’s potion, as well as any scent in Barbara’s dwelling should have been months old by now.

“It should be.” Barbara hefted the trunk in Aaarrrgghh’s direction. “Mind carrying that for me, big guy? It gets heavier every time I pull it out.”

“Is it beach time, Dr. L?” Toby asked, shifting his own packed backpack to settle better between his shoulders. “We missed the last one, didn’t we?” His enthusiasm for the trip faded with a glimmer of concern. 

“Yes we did, since Jim was helping everyone else across the country. We’ll have to make sure he doesn’t miss any more, apparently.” She answered, making sure Aaarrrgghh had a good grip on the trunk as Toby climbed onto his back with a practiced ease. The trunk weighed nothing to Aaarrrgghh, but she was still concerned.

“Beach time?” He thought they were visiting Jim, not going to the beach. Holding out a hand, he helped Barbara to settle next to Toby on his back before starting to walk to old Trollmarket and the gyre inside. As much as he hated it, it was the best and fastest way to go to New Trollmarket without completely abandoning the old. 

“Yeah, Dr. L takes Jim to the beach twice a year to enjoy the ocean, and the past couple of years, they let me come too. Thing is, Wingman, when Jimbo doesn’t get to go on these trips, he gets kinda depressed. So that’s what we’re gonna do, we’re taking him to the beach! Is that right, Dr. L?” 

“That’s the plan, at least. As long as nothing else is wrong, this should hopefully be an easy fix.” That wasn’t exactly the whole truth, but it was the half-lie that they had all used for the past decade. If it wasn’t broken, why bother fixing it, after all?

“Hey, I thought Mr. Strickler would be coming too. Y’know, to deal with things all at once.” Toby asked, looking around for the winged troll. 

“I thought so too, but Walt said that he would stay behind to watch over Arcadia this time. Honestly, I just think that Walt is insecure when it comes to who he currently is to Jim and is avoiding confrontation for as long as possible.” 

“Yeesh, I don’t blame the guy. Jimbo might be a little frustrated about it though. This is something they could really bond over. 

“True.” Barbara had a wistful twist to her mouth, holding on tightly when Aaarrrgghh slid down the bank of the canal.

“Horngazel.” The gentle troll asked, holding his hand up for the crystal.

* * *

“Dr. Barbara, Tobias, welcome to Jersey Trollmarket.” Blinky welcomed formally, returning Toby’s hug before greeting Aaarrrgghh in trollish and the air of welcoming family home. “Come, Jim’s nest is this way.” Taking the trunk that Aaarrrgghh offered in his two lower arms and a third hand on his partner’s arm, he casually led them through the market. There was no need to show his worry to the general populace and incite a panic.

“Did you get Jim to eat anything?” Barbara asked, looking around in awe, but still concerned for her son.

“Yes, we finally did. Nomura was able to make a dish that Jim was willing to try, though he didn’t eat much. He refused to touch river fish, which was what we offered first, seeing as it is more readily accessible, but he clearly prefers varieties of ocean fish instead.”

“...oh, yes, he would.” She had forgotten about the lack of supermarkets in Trollmarket. While the fish that came to mind for her were along the lines of salmon, tuna, and trout, the fish that trolls would eat would be purely of the local variety. “Jim usually prefers trout, when he can get it.”

“I will keep that in mind for the future.” Blinky nodded, a curious note leaking through.

“Every seventh month, but we try to nip it in the bud every six months, just to keep it on a regular schedule. I’ll tell you more once I talk to Jim. Especially since you’re now his primary caretaker.” She had a wry twist to her lips, but she accepted that she had always had a distant role when it came to Jim’s actual care. He was always the one to take care of her. 

“Speaking of, here we are.” Blinky led them to a smallish cave that had signs of being worked on when the time would permit. “Its small now, like most whelp’s first caves, but he did leave room for expansion as he grows into his troll body.” While the humans could fit comfortably, Blinky, let alone Aaarrrgghh had a bit of trouble squeezing down the entrance tunnel.

At the end was a simple circular room with a pile of blankets in the corner. A small box served as a side table with a half-eaten bowl of something sitting on top. Claire had a forkful of whatever was in the bowl held up, trying to feed her boyfriend, who was completely uninterested. “Wow, Jimbo, you got it bad this time.” Without shame or caution, Toby crawled into the nest and leaned against the half-troll’s unoccupied side.

“...Hey Tobes…” it took visible effort, but Jim uncurled enough to look at his oldest friend, laying his cheek on his knees instead of staring blankly ahead. “It's louder on this coast.”

“I bet. So what were you going to do if Blinky hadn't called your mom?”

Jim opened his mouth to respond, closed it and shrugged. Truth is, he didn't know. Sulk, likely, until he could finally shake off the Pull. He didn't know if it helped or just compounded things that he felt almost the same reaction from their little hearthstone. 

“Hey honey, can you look my way for a minute? I need to check your dilation.” Barbara cooed, touching his knee and pulling out her pen light. “I know it's going to sting, but only for a moment.” After Jim's transformation and talking to Walter, she had bought a low-light pen that would do the same thing for the more light-sensitive members of her family. Clicking her light on, she slowly drew it across his eyes, watching the pupils contract. They were no longer the round like human and some trolls, nor the cat-eye that Jim's eyes more commonly resembled these days. It was more like an oval, something between the two, but not quite.

“Yes, you definitely are having a relapse. My official prescription is a night swim at the closest private beach, Mr. Lake. In the meanwhile, you need some extra fluids. Toby, start looking up beaches. Claire, sweetie, can you get a bucket of water, a glass and a hand towel? Then we can sit down and talk.”

"Oh, um, sure." Claire nodded, putting the bite of food down from where she had been trying to entice Jim for the past few minutes. "I'll be right back." She bussed Jim's cheek before detangling herself from the nest.

Watching Claire leave, Barbara gave her son a smile and squeezed his hand. “I’m so proud of the both of you. Does she try to take care of you as much as you take care of her.” 

“We try. Sometimes it gets hard and I have to remember to back off.” Barbara nodded in understanding. It was a constant fight, getting Jim to understand that he wasn’t responsible for the whole world. Becoming the trollhunter was both a blessing in disguise, and demolished every ounce of work she had put into teaching Jim it was ok to be selfish sometimes. 

“Good. That’s good. Now,” Barbara settled in front of her son, playing with his fingers and tracing the faint scarring between the digits. “What do you want to do about this? Toby nor I have said anything yet, but it should be your decision to tell, just like it was your decision to include Toby. We can treat this like a bout of depression and nobody will know and either Toby or I will visit when the time comes and whisk you away, or you can tell your friends and have things out in the open, having that many more people to lean on at this time of the year. Either way, I brought the trunk, just in case.”

“...I… should at least tell Blinky.” He sucked on a tusk, looking at Blinky and Aaarrrgghh talking quietly across the room, pretending that they were not there and couldn’t hear every word they were saying.

Barbara nodded. “You should, but it doesn’t mean you have to.”

“...Yeah.” Ears perked, Jim welcomed Claire back in with a small wave. She didn’t have a bucket like Barbara had requested, but a pitcher instead. She had made do with worse.

“Thank you, Claire, this will help tremendously.” Retrieving the pitcher from the girl, she let her have her spot back sitting next to Jim. Going over to the trunk, she retrieved a small glass bottle and shook out a measure of the off-white powder into the water, letting it dissolve. Taking a taste with her finger, she shuddered, then nodded to herself, pouring a measure into the glass and handing it over to Jim. “Drink. You know it will help.” 

Next, she dunked the towel in the remaining water, wringing it out just enough to not drip before mopping Jim’s face, neck, and shoulders like she did when he was a child, before draping the towel over his head and horns. She could see the visible release of some of the tension stored in her son’s shoulders. Tilting the glass’ bottom up slightly to remind Jim to drink, she turned toward Toby. “Anything interesting?” 

“Not really yet, Dr. L. I don’t really know the area, so I can’t tell.”

Sipping from his glass, Jim leaned over and scrolled on Toby’s phone, zooming in on an area. “It’s not ideal, but it’s a shoreline that is surrounded by a national park.”

“And it’s close! Only about an hour away by car.”

“Or nearly a day away walking.” Jim grimaced. Jim and Toby shared a look, one considerably more enthusiastic than the other. “Car.” which actually meant more along the lines of blackout van or moving truck these days. Typical troll bodies didn't exactly lend themselves to fitting in human vehicles easily. But, it was only an hour's ride. He could stand being jostled around for an hour. Especially with the promise of beach time at the end.

Leaning over, Barbara looked at the map and the line drawn to highlight the roads they would take. “It looks like it's mostly rural, so we won’t have to worry about the traffic at least. Now, who all is coming so I know how big a van I need to rent?”

“Shotgun!” Toby yelled unnecessarily, raising his hand, earning a fond roll of her eyes as she patted down Toby’s hand. 

“Of course, Toby. You are the one with the directions. Next time you might not be so lucky though, you might have to fight Claire for it. I’m going to see if I can get a bench seat for the cab this time anyway. Now, who is coming?”

“Master Jim, it is up to you, of course. I, we, will support you in all your endeavors. Even if it is a beach trip with your mother, or something more.” Blinky walked closer, keeping eye contact with his charge. “There is no pressure to tell us anything if you are not comfortable doing so.”

Burying his face in his knees, Jim took a deep breath and looked up, giving himself a firm nod. “If I’m going to do this, I want to only have to explain this once. Can one of you get Nomura and NotEnrique here too. Just… just not Merlin. I don’t want him involved more than he already is.” 

Barbara stiffened. “What has that old man done this time?” 

“Nothing more than usual.” Jim shrugged, looking at his more trollish hand. “It's just the way he says things and how he looks at me sometimes. I think he knows.”

“Of course he would.” Barbara didn’t bother hiding her hatred of the old wizard. “It's not enough that he has your body, but he would want your soul too.”

“And with that, lest you wish to explain twice in depth, I should go fetch our changeling compatriots. I will be back momentarily.” Blinky leaned over to bump his horns with Jim’s before exiting as quickly as the narrow passage would allow. 

“That's what I’m afraid of.” He looked at the trunk, peeling his eyes away as soon as he caught himself. “That’s why I didn’t want to bring it with me.”

“Thank you for continuing to trust me, then.” Barbara gently tilted his head close enough to kiss his temple, right where his horn sprouted.

“...Yeah…” he reminded himself that he had water and took a long sip, not really wanting to talk and saving his words for his upcoming explanation. Between not knowing exactly how to describe it, everything in his soul also told him not to trust  _ anyone  _ with this secret, not even his own found family. It would only take a moment of inattention for one of them to betray him and tie him unwillingly to them. 

“Little Gynt?” Nomura came in, crouching in front of the whelp and looking over at the half-full bowl. “Well, at least you ate something this time. Blinkus said that you wanted to say something?” She wasn’t exactly coddling with her words, but she was soft in her gestures around the boy.

“Waiting on NotEnrique first.” Jim rubbed his cheek against her palm, surprising her by saying anything at all. He had slowly been becoming catatonic for at least the past week, that she could tell, if not longer. 

“Ok. Gives you time to finish your food then, eh?” She gave him a look that didn’t give him much of a choice. He would either eat it himself, or she would force him to, and she wasn’t nice about it like Claire had been.

Still, it surprised her when he actually grabbed the bowl and started to eat, slowly. Maybe the boy really did have a bout of homesickness, noting his mother and the fat boy bracketing him into his nest. “Yes, Nomura.” Snorting, she patted his head and sat against the wall, away from the nest and Aaarrrgghh. 

Finishing the bowl (if barely, and with a small amount of help from Toby in the form of a piece or two of fish being snagged by the boy), Jim handed it over to Nomura, just in time for Blinky to arrive, a protesting NotEnrique in hand(s). “What could be so important that you had to pull me away from my game? I was winning!” 

“You were cheating you impossible imp!” Blinky gave an exasperated sigh before handing him over to Claire. “Take him before he gets chased across New Trollmarket once again.”

“What were you doing this time, NotEnrique?” Tilting her troll-brother enough to make eye contact without letting him go.

“Just a simple game ‘o poker, sis. No biggie.” He had fantastic puppy eyes, if only it actually worked on her. “Now, what’s this big announcement about lil’ blue?”

“Right. Jim?”

Looking around to make sure he had everyone there (sans Strickler. He was a little miffed about that), he took a steadying breath and rolled his half-full glass between his palms. Making eye contact with Blinky, he asked a simple question. “What do you know about Selkie?”

Blinky blustered about, waving his hands around like one would have an answer, before giving a helpless shrug. “Not much, I’m afraid, Master Jim. They would be one of the Fairy Folk, I believe, beaten by the pixies hundreds of years ago. Effectively a myth in this time and age.”

“Selkie,” Nomura spoke up then, maintaining eye contact with Jim and trying to parse out where such a question would lead. “Otherwise known as the Seal Folk. Changeling water fairies that shed their skin to walk on land. The most common stories are about selkie women having their skins stolen from the beach, having to marry the thief until she finds her skin and can escape back to the sea.” She then looked at Barbara, trying to see a hint of the supernatural in her very human appearance. 

Jim nodded, acknowledging Nomura’s answer. “Selkie are, at the base, beings -fairies- that can change freely between human and seal forms. Closely related to merfolk and sirens, the females are more prevalent, but there are males as well. Selkies, unlike the other two freely breed with other species, creating either a selkie or non-selkie offspring. Selkie offspring can often be recognized at birth if born in a human form with webbed fingers and toes, pale hair that darkens with age and a cowl. Their fur coat manifests with their first transformation at between six months and a year of age.”

“As fascinating as it is, how relevant is this?” Nomura asked impatiently, Jim gave a half-grin and a shrug, knowing he lost his audience with the third-party textbook explanation.

“Whoever owns a selkie skin, owns the selkie. Most of the time, especially historically, the skins are stolen and that’s that, but sometimes the skins are given willingly to a human that catches their attention… Mom?” 

“Ah, I see how this is.” Barbara gave a half laugh, stroking one of her son’s horns. “Give me the hard part. At least your friends are old enough to understand what elopement means this time. Less awkward ‘why’s.” Jim returned with his own wry laugh, leaning into Barbara’s stroking as she got comfortable telling her own part of the story. “I think I was, well, about the age you three were when I met James the first time, maybe a little older. I was living with my parents in Virginia at the time, actually. I think mother probably lives in the same house after all this time, even. Either way, my parent’s summer house was on the beach and I absolutely loved the ocean. Every moment I could, I was playing in the surf, or exploring the beach. That beach saw me at my happiest, and washed away my tears when I cried.

The day I met James, was the same day I broke up with Ivan Collins. I had just found out that he had cheated on me Cellblock Tango style with the whole dance team and I was a wreck. Next thing I know, this hot -naked- guy comes up to me, wearing nothing but a fur coat, asking why I was sad. And here I was, this pathetic mess, just sitting in the surf, bawling my eyes out. You know what I did? I punched him in the balls and ran, screaming bloody murder back to the house. Called the cops on his bare ass too. It was a private beach, yeah, but not  _ that kind of private.”  _

At this point, Jim was thankful for his indigo coloring and stone skin, or he would be as red-faced as Claire and Toby. Claire, at least, had the excuse of not having heard the watered-down version when they were eight. 

“So, yeah, the next time I saw him, he was at least dressed… as dressed as a Baywatch reject is, anyway, and that fur coat.” Barbara rolled her eyes, remembering that he looked like Poseidon incarnate to her teenage self. “At least that time, he got an introduction in before I horse kicked him in the balls back into the surf.”

“You violent, violent woman!” Blinky whimpered, remembering just how willing she was to attack first, ask questions later in her own territory.

“I have learned to warn first!” Barbara smirked, remembering the same incident with Mr. ‘Blink-heh’. “So… third time he catches me at my part-time job at the boardwalk diner. At least he’s dressed that time, shirt, flip-flops and all. And that damn coat. Somehow, he managed to look pathetic enough, I actually listened to him that time. Told me some bullshit story that my tears had called to him and he was there to serve my every need or whatever. That time I dumped my fruit punch all over his white tee-shirt. I had to give him points for persistence though. At that point, I could have told him to take a long walk off a short pier, and he would have done it. And then come back to ask what else I wanted him to do. 

That’s the thing about male selkies, rare as they are. They will do  _ anything _ to make you happy once you catch their affection. Small things like fresh flowers, or big things like, oh,  _ going into a hostile plane of existence to retrieve a single child  _ or  _ killing someone.  _ As long as you don’t try to tell them to go away, they will literally be your slave if you want them to be. It's in their nature.” She intentionally didn’t look at the guilty faces surrounding her. As the story went on, it sank in just  _ why  _ Barbara would tell them. 

“Eventually, either I gave in or he realized I was looking for more brain than brawn -though his figure did not hurt to look at  _ in the least _ . He had a  _ fantastic ass- _ and the next thing I knew, we were dating. Ended up studying for my senior finals through the most  _ horrendous  _ morning sickness. I graduated, my parents found out, kicked me out, and we eloped off to the west coast. A couple months later Jim was born.” Laughing lightly, she gently rocked Jim at her side for a moment, despite her son being a good half a foot taller than her. “You should have seen him. Biggest blue eyes you’d ever seen and hair so pale I didn’t realize he wasn’t bald at first! We had to wait until he was bigger, though, to have the surgery to resolve his syndactyly digits. At least it was just webbing and not full fusion, so he had nearly full range of motion.”

“Sometimes it resolves with first transformation, that's why they waited.” Jim cut in, absently tracing his scars. “Actually, I think I asked for it, but I ended up going into preschool late because of it.”

“No, you were still nonverbal at that time, but you were starting to notice that your hands were different from the others in your creche.” Barbara traced the same scars on his hand, giving it a squeeze. 

“So, up until Jim was about… eight months old, I believe, I thought James was a weird guy with a fur fetish that thought that the way to a girl’s heart was to solve her tears. Nope. He insisted on taking us to the beach at least once a month once Jim started holding his head up and did… I still really don’t know if it was a ritual or James being his usual weird self. Well, one month, he does his usual ‘dunks the baby into the waves like an oreo’ and he stands up holding this snow white ball of fluff instead of my baby. I freak out and he just grins and backflips into the next wave- wearing that damned fur coat- and… that’s it. For the next four hours, not a peep. There I was again, sobbing in the surf. Baby gone, husband gone, parents on the opposite coast. Then the sun sets and there he comes, strolling down the beach, carrying my baby, now with his own tiny, fluffy pure white coat, proud as a peacock. He hands me Jim and has the gall to tell me that he was a natural. You know what I did next?”

“You kicked him in the balls.” Nomura grinned. 

“I kicked him in the damn balls and made him walk home in all his naked glory. The bastard.” Barbara growled, clutching her son closer and making him squirm. 

“He got arrested, didn’t he?”

“Yep!” She looked so smug, Jim looked so embarrassed. “Didn’t post his bail until he apologised either. Still made him walk home though.” 

“Good for you.” Nomura leered, giving Jim a warning look. 

“Well, when he gets home, I ask him politely what the fuck he did to my son. What he says, what he explains, is that I did a fantastic job giving him a son, and not only that, a selkie-born one at that. And that we should try for another one. After I finally get him to explain just what the hell a selkie is, I… admit I did something really stupid. I went out and bought that trunk.” she gestured to the old trunk, made of a solid wood with a good sized padlock on the outside. Without a saw or a pair of bolt cutters, it was near impossible to break into. “That night, I asked for Jim and James’ seal skins and locked them away and that was that… for about a year. Jim started getting sick, unable to keep his food down and just became so lethargic. He started sleeping as much as he did when he was a newborn. James told me though, he told me that Jim needed the ocean, that it wasn’t a choice. I was crying, Jim was crying, James was frustrated. I ended up giving James the key and told him to bring my baby back, not this fake that he had brought out of the ocean. They were gone the whole weekend and when Monday rolled around, James came back with a healthy Jim. Gave me my baby, locked the coats in the trunk, and gave me back the key.” Barbara’s voice was full of bitter regrets as she pet Jim’s hair. 

Sometime during the story, NotEnrique transferred laps and sat in Jim’s, watching the boy’s face carefully. It didn’t reflect any pain, but a bitter acceptance of mistakes made. It was hard, but reminders that his mother wasn’t perfect was necessary. Jim circled his arms around the small changeling anyway, pulling him into a loose embrace. It wasn’t the same, but he understood these things. 

“When we were able to look each other in the face again, we talked. He explained about the Pull and how without having either an anchor or giving in, supernatural beings just… whither.”

“It's the same Pull that Hearthstones have. Selkie have the Pull of the tides.” Jim explained quietly, eyes half closed as he focused on the Hearthstone mere yards away to counteract the deeper Pull of the Atlantic ocean. “An anchor for Selkie is whoever owns our skins. It mellows the pull for a time, but it's still always there. I’m,” Jim gave a reluctant smile, “young. Usually the pull gets impossible to ignore, for me, about every seven months. Since I’m  _ Landborne _ ,” He said landborne like most trolls said impure, “the pull isn’t as strong as on full blooded selkie, who have about seven hours or days, depending. An anchored selkie has about seven years. Heh, that’s where the ‘seven year itch’ comes from, I guess.”

“I didn’t really believe him, so, six months later, we all went to the beach. James took Jim under the waves and I watched a pair of seals playing in the surf for the rest of the afternoon. At one point, here came this little white ball of fluff, fumbling and waddling out of the surf and onto my beach towel, where he flopped down and promptly took a nap.” Barbara smiled softly at the memory. “It was the second time in my life where I decided that I had the  _ cutest damn baby in the world _ .” She cooed, nibbling and kissing Jim’s hair, much to his embarrassment.

Sitting back and releasing Jim from her ‘cootie-inducing’ grasp, Barbara looked around the room, not really wanting to say the next part. “So we made sure to take a trip to the beach every six months and haven’t missed a single one except for this past July. During that time, I had started college classes. I had a husband, a wonderful son, we owned a house and I was well on my way to becoming a doctor. I was happy.” Barbara smiled briefly, her eyes reflecting grief instead. “ And that was my mistake.” Absently, one of her hands clenched over her abdomen and she opened her mouth to continue before thinking better of it. 

“Female selkie,” Jim eventually took over, “live and love by their skins. If you ever catch a female selkie and want them to stay around, you steal that skin from her before she can retreat beneath the waves and you hide it, and hide it well. Because the moment she has her skin back, she’s gone. Male selkie don’t come to shore unless Called. With male selkie, it's the moment that you have no more wants. It doesn’t matter if you let them keep their skins or not, because they will keep coming back. You can keep one around a bit longer by hiding their skins, but then they will just wither away if they don’t find it. Yeah, my and Dad’s skins were locked away, but we both knew where the key to the trunk was at all times. It wasn’t to keep us out, but to keep others away.” 

“What do you mean by ‘called’ Master Jim?” Blinky prompted, seeing Jim flailing on what to say next.

He deliberately tapped his knee seven times before answering. “Seven by seven, th’ drops o’ maiden’s rain, fall t’ th’ sea ta call unto me.” Jim recited before blinking and giving a more modern explanation. “Someone unhappy over their lover has to cry seven tears seven times into the ocean. A lot of dissatisfied wives and jilted lovers, really. It’s like… blood in the water, I guess. Something about the chemical composition of sad tears and the seventh degree of magic, but it's something I’ve never really paid much attention to.” Jim shrugged. Magic really wasn’t his strong suit… but apparently stronger than his audience. “Please, don’t make me explain water magic.” 

“I’m afraid, Master Jim, that you may have to explain this ‘water magic’ eventually. I have never heard of the ‘seventh degree of magic’ before now.” 

“Numerology?” He got headshakes all around. “Ok, so it's not really water magic, but it's one of the prime numerals, thus ‘seventh degree’. There’s first, third, fifth, and seventh, depending on how strong a particular element is in a set spell. First, generally is pretty weak unless the element is a strong one. Like only using one chili pepper because its a strong flavor. With earth magic -troll magic- you have facets, so the more the better.”

“Not always, but your point stands.”

Jim nodded, “so the prime numerals… are mostly the amount of ingredients or elements in a spell or potion. It would be one thing that I would think Merlin would be happy to explain, but the longer he’s around, the more I think he just tosses the rules aside and just bullheads his way through everything.”

“But he’s really good.” Claire objected quietly, having been learning from Merlin when she could stand to be around him. “He taught Morgana, didn’t he.” 

Jim held his hands up, clearly displaying his nine fingers. “Did you ever notice that he doesn’t measure anything and just pours more power into a spell until it does vaguely what he wants it to do? I watched him finish the potion he made me use  _ in my blender _ . And how he charged it, instead of proper stirring technique or moon charging, he overcharged it with a  _ full lightening bolt.”  _

“And how would you know so much about this, Little Gynt?” Nomura asked, cutting off Blinky.

“Intuition, mostly. And there’s a harem of sea lion selkie-”

“A  _ what  _ of sea lion selkie?” Claire choked on air and stared at her boyfriend. 

“-near the beach that we used to go to. They’re mostly loud and obnoxious, but every once in a while they’d take pity on the poor landborne and give me tips on manipulating my master to my own ends. I know a lot of love spells, and beauty spells. Not like I ever used any of them myself. Honestly, listening to most fullblood selkies is like picking up one of those women’s entertainment magazines. ‘ _ Twelve ways to know your human is hiding something from you _ ’ and ‘ _ sea kelp for shinier and more manageable fur _ ’.”

“Yeah, but haven’t you tried that kelp one though?” Toby asked with a smirk.

“...Yes. And I stand by it working fantastically.” He refused to make eye contact, even as he accepted the teasing. “Though I need to work on the recipe so it will work better on this.” He tugged his own hair.

“Ultrafine sand, if you must know. Your hair isn’t pure keratin anymore and the sand will polish it to make it smoother to deal with.” Nomura shrugged, pulling her hair around for Jim to see easier. It was indeed the same glossy smooth as her skin, so he had thought it was naturally that way.

“...Huh. Yeah, I’m going to have to look at that.” He would never deny being vain about his hair, or at least used to be. 

“Now, Master Jim, you specified sea lion selkie. There are different clans?” Blinky asked, trying to pull him back on topic. He wouldn’t ask why it was called a  _ harem _ of all uncouth things, but he agreed with Miss Claire’s expression on the word.

“Yeah. Most of us take after different pinniped species, but there’s some shark and whale-based ones as well.”

“And the manatee.” Toby interjected.

Jim nodded. “And the manatee. They’re like the Krubera of selkies. Very big and peaceful… unless you piss them off.” Jim shuddered, “I just hope that I never have to see a manatee and a walrus selkie duke it out. Have you ever seen the scars on a manatee before? Scientists like to say that they’re all from outboard motors on boats. They’re not. Most of those are battle scars.”

“Manatee selkie are awesome sauce.” Toby grinned.

“Well, yer definitely no manatee, so what breed are ya then?” 

“NotEnrique, that’s rude!” Claire admonished while Toby cackled and Jim hid his face in embarrassment, muttering something into his knees.

“C’mon, Jimbo, they can’t hear you like that.” Toby grinned, poking his friend’s arm.

“I said that I’m a Nerpa.” Jim growled out, much to Toby’s amusement.

“...I’m afraid that I do not know that breed, Master Jim.” 

“It’s also known as the Baikal or the Lake Baikal seal.” Toby was all too excited to explain, seeing as Jim wouldn’t. “They’re a really unique, and really small, subspecies of Arctic seal. They’re only about three to four feet long and usually top out, weight wise, about 200 pounds. So Jimbo’s extra adorable when he’s wearing his fur.”

“Just because I’m tiny, doesn’t mean I can’t yeet you into the middle of the lake beforehand.” Jim mildly threatened, taking a sip of his water.

“Oh, oh, you should see him next to the sea lion ladies! He looks even tinier then.”

“...I never did manage to convince them that I wasn’t ten.” 

Barbara gave her son an amused look and patted his shoulder in mock sympathy. “Jim definitely didn’t get his height from James’ side of the family.” 

“Yeah, the sea lions, the ladies are about, oh, six feet long and the men are… eight. Yeah. Jimbo looks like a pup in comparison. Wasn’t there one that always thought you were six and kept trying to adopt you?” 

“René had her heart in the right place.” Jim winced. “Just very, very misguided. And determined to have her own kid. She tried to adopt you too.”

Toby nodded in agreement, perfectly willing with the idea of being adopted by a selkie. “And then there was that visiting manatee.  _ That  _ one was hilarious. Have you ever seen a chihuahua go up against a great dane? It’s like watching NotEnrique go up against Aaarrrgghh and expecting to win. Jim was just  _ so tiny _ going up against this guy that I swear belonged with a bike gang. Remember that, Jimbo? You were still smaller than me when we met Wyatt.”

Jim’s expression was caught somewhere between morbid embarrassment and amusement. “More like Eli against Aaarrrgghh. And he was part of a bike gang. BACA, remember. The ones that are anti child abuse. They called him in when Mrs. Palchuk was trying to separate from that guy. Do you think Steve still has that manatee with his phone number on the tag?” 

“Depends, is that seal still in the back of your closet?” Toby said with a smirk. The look on Jim’s face was one that only a best friend could read and he started cackling. “You brought it with you, didn’t you Jimbo? So… where is it? In the side table? No…” He caught Jim’s eye flicker and grinned even wider. “Aha! Off, off, off, off!” he cackled, (attempting) to push Jim off his own nest, along with Claire and Dr. Lake before diving headfirst into the blankets, pushing them here and there in the search for his prize. 

“Speaking of. Jim, you need to call Mr. Piscina. It's been a while since your last check-in and he started to get worried enough that he’s been calling me, and you know how much he hates doing that.” 

Jim grimaced, ducking his head. It wasn’t that he forgot, it's just that he had been busy… for the past year. Yeah… “I’ll do that this weekend.”

“Pee-cee-na?” Aaarrrgghh sounded out, not having heard the name before. He wasn’t one of the teachers at Toby and Jim’s school, he knew that much.

“He’s… my social worker.” Jim cringed, moving out of the way as Toby continued to root around. “Wyatt Piscina. Most of the time he takes on abuse cases for little kids.”

“Like Steve.” Toby interjected, throwing around a particularly fluffy blanket.

“But he also has a talent for finding abandoned landborne pups and… watching over them.”

“Like an overbearing uncle.”

“Yeah…” Jim huffed. “He’s all for protecting the kids, even from their parents if he feels the need to.” Barbara let out an exasperated snort, but didn’t argue. “He’s threatened mom more than once to stop me from doing too many chores around the house.” 

“He did have a point though, Jim. You needed to sleep and actually do your school work, not do literally every chore around the house. A few small things to help, yes, but not things like doing the grocery shopping and making sure the bills were paid on time.” It was an old, old argument that had caused many fights before Jim was chosen as trollhunter. 

“Aha! I found it!” Successful, Toby held aloft a small stuffed seal pup with a zipper along the belly seam. At one point the fur had been white and plush, but it was starting to show its age and had a few bald spots. 

A moment later, he was kicked out of the nest and Jim had reclaimed his spot, also reclaiming the poor seal from the human. Toby pouted, but didn’t object. That one was Jim’s, after all, and he had his own at home. More than once, Mr. Piscina had scolded him on leaving others’ toys alone if they weren’t given permission first. The stuffed seal was absolutely tiny in Jim’s hands though. It had been one of those classic beanie babies before it was modified with the pocket in the belly. 

Stuffing it back in his blankets, he practically sat on it and glared at Toby until he backed off with a grin. What he didn’t notice, was that NotEnrique had carefully grabbed the stuffie while Jim was distracted and made off across the room with it. “Oh-ho, what’s this?” He exclaimed, inspecting the zipper and slowly pulling it open. “What… is this?” 

Jim growled deeply, his hackles rising. NotEnrique, in response, made for the largest obstacle in the room: Aaarrrgghh, and continued to inspect the pouch. Inside was a white pouch tied with a silver ribbon with a bundle of dried herbs inside, a few small shells and polished rocks. “Put. That. Back.” He moved stiffly, moving easier quadrupedally until he propped himself against Aaarrrgghh’s arm to stare NotEnrique in the face. “Now.” Aaarrrgghh held a hand up, ready to catch Jim if he fell, since the boy didn’t look steady on his feet in the least, carefully hovering over his back.

“Uh… right-o, Bossman.” NotEnrique stuffed the bag back into the stuffie and zipped it up without breaking eye contact, handing it over. “Sorry.” Grunting, Jim held it close, his thumb pressing into the animal enough to feel the contents. Turning, he wobbled a bit and just decided better and just sat down against Aaarrrgghh to rest for a moment. 

“Right.” Barbara stood up and knelt in front of her son, giving him the half-drunk glass of water before topping it up. “It's not that late, and I need to go rent a moving van, apparently. Can someone show me how to get to the surface and how far we are to the closest town. You guys figure out who all is coming and text me. Jim, Sweetie, finish that glass and probably about two more and get some sleep. We’ll be going to the beach tomorrow night so you have plenty of time to swim.” 

“Yes mom.” Jim pressed his face into Barbara’s hand when she went to stroke his cheek, kissing his forehead as well. 

“I’ll escort you.” Nomura volunteered, standing up and grabbing the bowl she had used to feed Jim earlier.

“Thanks Zelda.” Barbara smiled, following the changeling. “You know, we’ve missed you in our Krav Maga classes.”

Nomura smirked over her shoulder as they exited Jim’s den. “I’ll bet.” She didn’t say anything else as they traversed New Trollmarket and Barbara didn’t feel the need to fill the air either. It was strange, finding out just how many changelings Barbara had known in her everyday life before the Eternal Night. One of her coworkers, Toby’s dental assistant apparently, Zelda from her Krav Maga Wednesday night classes, one of the cashiers she saw on a semi-weekly basis,  _ Walt _ a  _ teacher  _ from  _ Jim’s school, _ just to name a few. And the vast majority of them dead or in deep hiding, not able to fit in with humans any longer, and not willing to submit themselves to trolls’ judgement. 

Reaching a blank part of darkened tunnel, Nomura pulled out her small Horngazel and turned to Barbara. “Just ask, Zelda. We’ve known each other for how long?” The human cut off, startling the changeling.

“Gynt- Jim, sorry- are you his master or his mother?” Little Gynt had definitely gotten his wry grin from Barbara, as she leaned against the cave wall and studied her friend.

“Jim is definitely mine. I’ve sent in enough DNA tests to make sure of that.” She gave a dry laugh, admitting to a changeling that she had suspected her own son of being one. “Though with the more I learn about the supernatural world, the less sure I am that those tests are worth the spit on a stick. At least I’m more sure of Jim being mine, than Enrique being Javier’s.”

They both laughed at that. It had been quite the scandal, when Councilwoman Nunez came home from the hospital holding a blonde-haired caucasian-faced baby, what with both her and her husband being dark-haired, dark-eyed hispanic. Some of the nastier rumors had said that the baby was Claire’s, especially when the girl was called home from boarding school in the months before the birth while Ophelia was on bed rest. And it didn’t help that the girl had practically been the baby’s primary caretaker either. 

“So, what keeps him around then?” Barbara’s smile dropped to a borderline guilty look. “Are you his master as well?”

“Jim… it's James’ fault for leaving. And my fault for not noticing before Jim got into the habit of just trying to replace his father. It didn’t help that I was sick for a while, either. I never got the chance to tell James I was pregnant, I was going to tell him after the party. I didn’t get out of bed for nearly a month after  _ it  _ happened. And Jim just... kept taking care of me.” Barbara gave a helpless shrug. “And I always knew that he would leave eventually. It’s a Selkie thing. What surprised me is that he made Toby stay.”

“What does the human have to do with anything?”

Barbara gave a wry grin to herself, crossing her arms. “Selkie marriage, is done two ways, did you know? Either stealing the coat and hiding it, or giving the coat willingly back to the selkie that owns it.”

“And that fat boy owns your son then?”

Barbara bobbled her head. “It's more of a mutual thing, from what they’ve told me. Jim takes care of Toby, and Toby watches out for Jim. Having Toby stay behind means that he’ll come back, if only for his mate, and give me a chance to see him again.”

“Doesn’t seem very fair, from what I’ve seen. Tubby seems more like the comic relief sidekick more than anything. He gets Gynt into more than out of trouble, it seems.”

“He is very… enthusiastic at times, but they’ve both gotten each other in just as much trouble, so I can’t say one more than the other at this point. At least with Toby in Arcadia, I know that he’s safe. Bored. But safe.”

“So, if they’re selkie married, what about-”

“James and I never were, and I realize that was probably my mistake now.”

“I was wondering about Claire, actually. Jim shouldn’t string the girl on if he’s unavailable.”

“He’s not. Jim and Toby may be mates, but they both care for Claire. It may have been a Calling that started Jim watching her, but he didn’t start doing anything until Toby gave his permission.”

“Right.” Nomura turned to the wall and started to draw the gateway. “And what of Trollmarket? What is keeping him here when both of his mates are human?”

“He will stay as long as he is needed. And from what I’ve heard, Trollmarket will always need its Trollhunter. They will always find something that he’s needed for. They will never be completely satisfied.”

Nomura nodded, placing her hand on the gateway and pushing. “This leads to a cave in one of the state parks. There’s a parking lot and bus stop less than a mile down the trail, according to Claire. I would suggest sleeping on a real bed tonight and when you need back in, call or text one of us and we’ll come up to get you. Night Barbara.” 

“Night, Zelda. It was nice talking to you. We should catch up some more sometime soon.” 


	2. Selkie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They get to the beach, a lot of talking ensues. Once again, this is minimally edited for NaNoWriMo 2019.

You know, we’ve missed you in our Krav Maga classes.”

“I’ll bet.” Jim sighed and pinched the bag in the beanie baby’s stomach, crushing the herbs slightly to release some of the scent. He no longer had to press his nose to the seal to smell it, but it was a habit borne of years doing the same.

“Liquorice. Rosemary…” Aaarrrgghh murmured, picking up the scent better than Jim.

“Anise, rosemary and morning glory. You were close.” Jim smiled, absently continuing to slowly turn the herbs into dust.

“... You didn’t tell me it was that bad, Jimbo.” Toby said quietly, trying to remember what those herbs did in that combination.

“No more than usual. Though I should probably replace the herbs sometime soon. These are getting kinda old.”

“Think you could get some mistletoe from Merlin.”

“I know I can. Doesn’t mean it was properly harvested or charged though.”

“...Yeah, that’s fair. He’s kinda that sleazy corner magic dealer you only talk to when you have to.” Jim barked out a laugh and leaned back against Aaarrrgghh. “You want me to bring something next time I come then? Get stuff from your usual guy for you?”

“That would be great. I swear Deucey thinks I probably dropped off the face of the planet, since I haven’t talked to him in months. Last thing I bought from him was the cardamom.” Toby snorted, looking between Jim and Claire before outright laughing.

“Well, looks like the cardamom worked, eh Jimbo.  _ Ohh, la la _ .”

Jim blushed and looked away. “Shut up, Tobes. I really had forgotten about that.” 

“Cardamom? Don’t you have some in your kitchen already? And Deucey, why does that name sound familiar?”

“It's the name of that guy that flirted with you. The one with blue hair tips and the skull pendant.” Jim spoke the same time that Toby waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

“ _ Does he _ ? Has he cooked with it for you yet? You know, Jimbo here nearly kissed you that time that you dismissed Douxie like a servant during our double date.”

Claire gave Toby a confused look, she didn’t remember ever talking to their waiter, let alone being so rude to them. Then again, she didn’t exactly remember much of that night after getting up to go to the bathroom. “Um… Jim, didn’t you make some chai for me last week?” Jim choked and reluctantly nodded. “Why, is that bad?”

“No, nope. Just hilarious because it’s an aphrodisiac~” Toby sung, Jim wildly shaking his head in denial. 

“Just a mild one.” Jim squeaked. “It's mostly for upset stomachs though.” 

“Ok, look.” Toby laughed, totally willing to spill on his best friend. “The last time Jimbo intentionally cooked with cardamom was the day we found the amulet. It was in the meatloaf, with the hopes that he would be able to talk to you without making a completo idiota out of himself in gym class. Of which he did. Horribly. And yet you still asked him to be your Romeo. Kitchen magic success.” 

“Is  _ that _ what happened?” Claire… didn’t know what to think of that. On the one hand, Jim had said earlier that he had never touched love spells, and on the other, how much of her attraction to him was because of a stupid spell. “You put a  _ love spell _ on me?”

“No, that’s not what happened at all. I don’t, can’t, morally, do anything strong enough like a love spell. It was more of asking you to hear me out. Easy to break and has to have something to latch on in the first place. Kitchen magic is literally one of the weakest forms of magic out there, and I haven’t even touched it since that day. When you’ve seen real magic, you kinda don’t want to touch even the mild things anymore without good reason. Honestly, it's more of a mild confidence booster since I was the one that was the focus of the spell. A spell I used on myself dozens of time, especially when I was dealing with  _ Uhl _ .” 

“Oh. Ok.” She didn’t look ok, but she would accept the excuse… for now. She would have to ask Merlin about it, later. “And the ...rosemary and aniseed? What are those for?”

“Anise.” Jim corrected softly. “Along with rosemary, morning glory and mistletoe are all used to ward off bad dreams. I’ve always had nightmares, but things got more intense since Bular and the Darklands.” 

“The Darklands can give anyone nightmares, kid.” NotEnrique interjected, maintaining a polite distance but still relatively close. 

“The mojo bag works, to a point, but mistletoe is a stronger element, so hopefully it will help more when I remake it. The rules are, though, that nobody but the owner is supposed to see or touch the mojo bag, or the magic contained doesn’t work any longer.”

“But Tubby touched it first!” 

“It’s  _ To-by _ .”

“He’s allowed to.” Jim spoke over Toby’s growl, “because I gave him permission and he knows exactly what he can do with it without breaking the spellwork.” 

* * *

“Ok, Toby, up front.” Barbara patted the boy’s shoulder and pushed him gently toward the cab. “Hmm… Aaarrrgghh, let's get you situated first, then the rest can get comfortable around you. Remember, it’s just an hour tonight and an hour in the morning, so we can all get along for that long.” Even getting a moving van that was evaluated for weight, she winced, hearing the springs protest as the large troll got situated toward the cab-end. Opting to err on the side of caution, Barbara had rented the largest truck she was comfortable driving. It was still a bit small, in her mind, but she kept reminding herself that it was only for two hours. They had even lined the upper corners with a string of white christmas lights, so they wouldn’t be riding in the dark like fugitives. (the truth was, Blinky had quietly brought them to her, stating that Jim had issues with the darkness that none of the others had, being used to the caves. They both knew that it was because of the darklands and what little he was willing to share about his transformation) 

Next up was Blinky, which was… a bit of a struggle. After a few seconds of flailing with his short legs, Aaarrrgghh simply reached over and plucked his mate from the edge by his head, pulling him further into the truck. “Ah, yes.” He brushed imaginary dust from his shorts. “Thank you, my friend.” Then came the trunk and Jim immediately behind. The boy had perked up some over the day, but still looked rather worn. He had attempted to avoid even looking at the trunk up until now, but this evening his hand hadn’t left the polished wood for more than a moment at a time. Blinky had suggested at one point, if it would make him feel better, to wrap himself up in his sealskin. The boy had turned a chalky pallor and shut down for the rest of the morning, Tobias taking to fielding any other questions that came up. The suggestion wasn’t brought up again.

“And now you, Claire. Do you want front or back?” Hugging her backpack, Claire gave Jim an apologetic look before responding to Barbara. “I did manage to get a bench seat, so you will fit if you don’t mind sitting cozy with Toby.”

“I’d like to sit up front, please.” 

“Alright. You and Toby figure out who gets middle then.” Barbara nodded, gently guiding Claire to the front. As soon as she sat down, NotEnrique popped out of her backpack with a triumphant shout of ‘shotgun!’ Before being hushed and shoved back into the bag since the sun had just barely set and there was the possibility of there being other people still around. 

“Ok, boys, are you all settled back here?” Barbara asked, reaching up and grabbing the door strap.

“Wait!” Nomura slid in at the last moment, grinning when she beat the falling door. “Someone has to keep Barbara busy while the boys have all their fun, right Barbara?” 

Barbara laughed, nodding in agreement. “You just want to catch up on all the rumors in Arcadia you missed, Zelda.”

Nomura shrugged and got comfortable next to the door as it slid shut. “Where’s the lie in that.”

“See you in an hour then.” Barbara pounded on the door after latching it shut. “If you need me to stop, just knock.” She got a knock in response and nodded to herself, getting into the cab and wrapping an arm around Toby for a brief hug. “Now, how are we getting out of here, navigators?”

“Ok, Dr. L,” Toby checked the saved trip on his phone. “Turn left at the road, then take the next right street.”

“Got it. You two -three-,” she spotted NotEnrique sitting in Claire’s bag on the baseboard. “Buckled in? Then let’s go.” Barbara reached over and turned on the radio… to some oldie slow jazz. “...Right. Claire. You’re in charge of the radio. Can you find something that won’t knock me out and that we can all tolerate?”

“Got it, Barbara.”

* * *

“Well, isn’t this… cozy. Certainly not the worst form of transportation we’ve been on.” Blinky spoke up, settling in comfortably wedged between Aaarrrgghh and the truck’s wall. Jim was stiff, but pretending to be casual as he read something on his phone while sitting on the trunk, while Nomura sat at the opposite end, leaning against the truck’s door. Somehow, they all had enough room to spread out, but just not to stand.

Some time down the road, they heard a series of knocks from behind Aaarrrgghh’s head, grabbing all their attention. As the knocking continued, Nomura noticed that Jim was tilted toward them to hear better, gesturing absently with his off-hand. And she realized that Jim realized what the knocking was. 

O-U-D-O-I-N-G-O-K

“Oh, just answer him them already!” She huffed, just to hope that they wouldn’t continue the entire time. Blinking, Jim looked over at Nomura with a raised brow, surprised when he really shouldn’t have. “I thought that’s what texting was for?”

Jim held up his phone and waved it before storing it in his pocket. “No service in here. I was reading a book.” Excusing himself, Jim carefully climbed up and splayed on top of Aaarrrgghh so that he would have a good angle to knock back.

I-M-F-I-N-E B-O-R-E-D

F-I-N-D-T-R-E-A-S-U-R-E

M-A-Y-B-E N-E-W-A-R-E-A

Nomura groaned, leaning back into her corner with a sigh of exasperation. 

“Nomura, is anything the matter?” Blinky asked, looking up from his own book, seeming to have zoned out everything around him. 

“Just that infernal racket.” She loosely gestured toward Jim, who was listening to the knocking from the other side.

“Ah, I thought the boys were just occupying themselves. Passing the time by playing a game.”

“Kind of.” Jim murmured, taking a moment before starting his knocks.

“Its a code, Blinkous. Morse code. Only dorks and history nerds know it these days, even less actually  _ use  _ it.”

“Everyone knows SOS though.” Jim spoke up, but didn’t deny the accusation. “Strickler thought it was funny.” 

Nomura snorted. “He would.” Standing up, Nomura leaned over and started her own series of knocks, only pausing briefly when the van jolted with Barbara’s surprise. “There. Now keep it down.”

* * *

For the past few miles, when Toby wasn’t giving directions, he was talking to Jim via knocking on their shared wall, taking that hard-earned Boy Scout training to heart. She had absolutely no clue what they were saying, but that wasn’t a new thing. Toby was never afraid to figure out different ways to communicate with Jim when he was having hard days, and the knocking code was just one of those tools. Usually the boys texted each other when Jim was in a quiet mood, but the texts weren’t being received for some reason. It was probably the truck itself insulating Jim’s phone from the signal. 

Managing to put it to the back of her mind, Barbara was startled when a separate series of knocks started directly behind her head, a lot sharper-sounding than what Jim’s sounded like. “What was that?”

“Ah, hehe.” Toby looked sheepish as he pulled his hand away, before answering Barbara. “I think that was Nomura, telling me to shut up since its supposed to be for emergencies only.”

“Ah.” Barbara nodded, “Then apologize and sit back down. You can continue talking to Jim later on.”

“Yes, Dr. L.” Knocking out his brief apology, Toby turned back to the front and put his belt back on. 

It was relatively quiet until Barbara went to turn onto a side road and instead stopped completely. “Toby, warn the back that there’s a dirt road ahead. It’s going to get a bit bumpy.” Toby did so, getting a single confirming knock in response. She gave them a few seconds to brace themselves, then took the turn at a crawl, not knowing how bad it would be. Thankfully, the road wasn’t too worn. She could see the water through the trees and smell the salt on the air. Honestly, it smelled almost like home. A couple hundred miles further south, and she would have been for the first time in nearly 20 years. 

Eventually, they hit the end of the road. Thankfully, there were no houses in sight and a dock floating out from the thin stretch of sandy beach. It was about as perfect as they could get, given the circumstances. Turning off the engine, Barbara slapped the cab wall and slipped out of her seat. “Claire, sweetie, can you take the cooler down to the beach while I go let the trolls out of the back?” She… never in her wildest dreams thought that she would ever say something like that. “And Toby,” she fished a set of keys out of her purse and tossed them at the shorter boy. “I know you know what to do with those.”

“Yes, Ma’am Dr. L!” Toby saluted, sliding out of the other side of the cab and coming around to meet her in back. 

Barbara slapped the door of the truck to warn them away from the door, then unlocked it, tossing it as high as she could. Unfortunately, the door didn’t catch and started to slide back down, but a large grey-green hand caught it and pushed it all the way up. “Thank you, Aaarrrgghh. We can leave the trunk right here for now.” She patted the corner of the truck bed next to her while Nomura, Blinky and Jim crawled out. Aaarrrgghh, being last, pushed the trunk into place before jumping out, making the truck springs bounce with a loud whine.

“Sorry.” He winced, using one hand to ease the bounce until the truck settled back to its regular height. 

“It's no problem. Jim, sweetie, you with us?” Barbara put her hand gently on Jim’s arm, trying not to startle her son as he stared out into the ocean. She could feel him twitching with the urge to go out and swim conflicting with the need to stay with his family.

Eventually, Jim was able to raise his opposite hand and place it over Barbara’s, giving two taps in agreement. “Ok, Toby, up you go.”

“Right. Wingman. a little help here?” fumbling to find the right key, Toby let himself be picked up and put inside the truck. kneeling next to the trunk, he unlocked it and threw open the lid, pulling out the carefully folded fur pelt with an air of ceremony. it was the first time that the trolls had seen it, but it sparked a familiarity in relation to Jim, what there was no doubt that it was his. Standing on the edge, Toby held the pelt close and caught Jim’s eye when he turned to stare at the pelt. “Selkie, I return this pelt to you. With the caveat that you will return before the sun returns to the sky, do you consent?”

Jim nodded and reached for the pelt, only for Toby to hold it closer and take a step back, out of Jim’s immediate reach. “This is a verbal contract, Selkie, I need your binding word.” Toby gave Jim a soft smile. “Come on, Jimbo, you can do it.”

Taking a few false starts, Jim finally forced a small “yes, I will return before the sun rises” between his lips. 

With a big smile, Toby flipped out the pelt like a cape and wrapped it around Jim’s shoulders before firming his expression. “I hold you to your promise, Selkie, for breaking it will bring swift punishment. See you in the morning, Jimbo.” Jim grinned back, clutching the pelt close with one hand and flashed a sign with his free hand: his thumb, pointer and pinky sticking out, while his middle finger was pressed to his palm. “Love you too.”

Turning to his mom, he flashed the same sign and kissed her cheek, then gave Blinky and Aaarrrgghh one-armed hugs. Down the beach, he caught up with Claire and pressed their foreheads together, along with a small kiss. “I’ll be back” was a promise whispered in her ear, barely audible, but heard nonetheless. 

Finally, with all his human obligations done, Jim sprinted out to the end of the dock and dived, his pelt wrapping tightly around his body. 

"Huh, the kid wasn't pulling our leg." Nomura mumbled, watching Jim dive like he had been doing it all his life, a small blue flash just under the water marking his transformation. 

"Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh, c'mon Jimbo, give us a sign here." Toby sprinted past her, surprising her with his speed, stopping at the edge of the floating dock, something small and shiny dangling between his fingers.

"Give him a minute." Barbara's posture was a forced relaxed, but her voice was tense as she joined Toby on the dock. "And use mine. You can save yours for another time."

"Right, ok, sure Dr. L." Stuffing what was in his hand into a pocket, he grabbed the one that Barbara handed over without taking his eyes from the calm water. After about thirty seconds, he dangled what she realized was a pendant necklace from a finger and started absently swinging it around. Almost as soon as he did, Toby spotted a swell in the water and relaxed, handing the necklace back to Barbara. "He's good. I'm going to go change now." 

"Ok. You go do that, then we'll light the bonfire when you get back." Barbara squeezed his shoulder and sent him on his way before turning toward the others. "Ok, let's get this party started. We need to clear some space for a fire pit so we don't catch the beach on fire. All the twigs in a pile here. Then we'll gather driftwood through the night to keep it burning. There’s some blankets in the cooler if we can’t find any logs to drag over to sit on.” Barbara wanted to keep busy, so that she didn’t have to worry about her baby boy in a completely new ocean than the one had grown up swimming in. 

“What was that about?” Nomura asked, refusing to do anything but watch as the others started gathering firewood. 

“Hmm…?” Barbara looked up from picking up a particularly long stick, breaking it in half.

“You and Tubby, I understand wanting to make sure his shift didn’t kill him gruesomely, but what was with the necklace?” 

“Oh,” Barbara pushed a stray hair behind her ear, buying a moment to figure out how to describe it. “It’s a single-use summoning pendant. Jim made them just in case something happened on the beach and he needed to come in. He said it acted like a dog whistle, or something.”

“And the kid says that he doesn’t know any magic.” Nomura scoffed, finally deigning to help pick up wood. “If he put effort in, he could probably do more than water-elemental spells.”

“You would be surprised to find out how often I hear that.” Barbara stated with a proud lilt. “It's just that he doesn’t want to.” 

“If he’s as reluctant about magic as he is about fighting, we may just have to push him to it, one of these days.” Nomura watched the water, already mentally planning a future ‘sparring’ session or two. “and here, we all thought Claire was our little ‘sorcerer's apprentice’ when, once again, it's Little Gynt.” 

“Speaking of, how is Claire doing? I know her parents refuse to talk about anything with even a hint of the supernatural, and Jim is the king of downplaying a situation, so how are things, really?”

“Hmm… slow going, honestly.” She absently tapped her chin with a finger. “Little Gynt is a ball of stress most days, working until he’s literally collapsed a few times and had to be moved out of the way until he wakes up again.”

“Ah, he gets that from me, I’m afraid.”

“And Claire is learning what spells she can, when that old wizard shows his face, but that is both too frequent for anyone’s taste, and not near enough for Claire’s appetite for knowledge. Now that I know what I’m looking for, I believe that Jim has been helping the lessons in his own quiet way as well. Blinkous is, well, Blinkous. He, apparently, had been Vendel’s apprentice for the past two centuries, and is still settling into his new role. You should know by now, just how long-lived trolls are. It takes forever for change to be accepted.”

“So the others are giving Jim grief.” Barbara deadpanned, reading between the lines.

“Not near as much as some would like to. He’s earned their respect as a human first, then as whatever he classifies himself as this week. He’s not a changeling, though that’s the closest he would be classified as, but he’s not a human or troll either. And those that call him impure are quickly reminded why that word is a bad idea. Nothing like a good horn locking brawl to bring trolls together.” Nomura scoffed, as if she wasn’t in the middle of some of those fights herself, relishing in the battlelust. “So, how are Icky Stricky and the babies doing?”

Barbara grimaced, taking her pile of sticks and dumping them into a pile between two logs that Aaarrrgghh had found and dragged over. “I forgot how much work infants were.” 

"And the babies?" Nomura smirked, getting a dramatic, hand fluttering gasp in return.

" _ Zelda!  _ I would never call any domestic partner of mine an  _ infant!"  _ Nomura quirked her eyebrow, earning an amused huff as Barbara dropped her antics. "Walt's depressed and spends most of his time sulking when he's not helping with the babies. Centuries of working towards a singular goal, and suddenly he's been set adrift and he's working through what he's going to do next." 

"Oh, please. If he's doing that, he truly is acting like an infant. Not being an active part of the human world is not the end-all. He has the skills, and the technology has caught up enough, that he doesn’t have to stop what he enjoys doing. For some reason, he enjoys teaching brats. Online classes  _ are  _ a thing now, he can make videos and lesson plans and post them so that he can reach more than one paltry classroom at a time. I’m sure, at the very least, Little Gynt would enjoy the lessons. Even before he became the hunter, I would hear things about that boy. They truly did have that whole ‘mutual respect’ thing going on at one point.” Nomura rolled her eyes.

“And what about you, what are you going to do now.” 

Nomura smirked and settled herself in the sand, leaning against one of the logs, deigning that she had gathered her portion of the driftwood. “Make sure Gynt knows how to fight, to start off with. I’m a historian, I can go anywhere and do anything I want without anyone needing to talk to me in person. Plenty do. And email just made it easier to submit my academic papers in the meantime. If anything, I like this better, since I definitely don’t have the patience to give snot-nosed brats and idiotic sponsors museum tours any longer.”

Barbara could see where Nomura was getting at, but she just couldn’t see cutting herself off from society like Walt had. Settling on the log next to Nomura, Barbara absently watched Toby as he dug out a fire pit with Aaarrrgghh’s help and lined it with stones they had pulled from the edge of the road. “I want Jim to get his GED, even if he can’t go to school like a normal teenager any longer. Do you think Walter would be able to help?”

“That, you would have to talk to Blinkous about. He’s taken over the boy’s education these days, and gets territorial about it.”

Barbara nodded, looking over at the four-armed troll across the fire pit, quietly catching up with Aaarrrgghh. “But that’s all troll-related, and while that’s all fine and good, I don’t want to forget what he used to be. His human heart. And that he’s still a teenager. It would be something ‘normal’ for Jim to latch onto.”

Nomura hummed, nodding her head. “Talk to them, all of them, and I’m sure that they could see reason.”

“Hey,” Toby spoke up, pulling what looked like a piece of heartstone from his pocket, putting it close to some tinder he had scraped together. “If Jimbo starts getting private lessons for his GED, could I sit in with some of them.” He did… something, and the tinder lit. Blowing gently on it, he got a good-sized flame on the piece of bark he was holding in one hand, much quicker than she knew normal fire caught. “He wasn’t the only one that missed a lot of school last year.”

Barbara pursed her lips, but reluctantly nodded. “You’re still going to normal school during the daytime, Toby. I won’t have you isolating yourself now that Jim’s across the country. If we set this up, they will be _tutoring sessions_ _only _for you. If you were behind already, you should have asked Walt for help.”

Not looking away from the piece of bark burning merrily in his hand, Toby arranged some of the sticks with his other hand before setting the flame down gently. Not a moment later, the rest of the kindling burst into flame, like it had been sprayed with lighter fluid, though Nomura hadn’t seen any pulled out. It had caught fire so suddenly, that Aaarrrgghh pulled Toby away by the back of his shirt like grabbing a youngling by the scruff. “Careful.” the giant rumbled, placing the boy gently away from the fire.

“I’m fine, Wingman,” Toby grinned, holding both his hands out for inspection. “See, no damage done.” Aaarrrgghh gave a disbelieving snort, but patted his head anyway. 

“I’m not really  _ behind,” _ Toby winced. “I’m just missing my study buddies, that’s all. And Strickler was Jimbo’s favorite teacher… not so much mine.” Feeding some thicker pieces of wood into the fire, Toby finally nodded in satisfaction and turned toward the woods, calling behind him: “Hey, Wingman. Have you ever had toasted marshmallows before? They’re like whipped cream, but on fire.” 

“Toby, they’re not supposed to be on fire when you-” Barbara started, but then remembered who, exactly she was talking to. “Don’t burn yourself.” 

“Oh, that sounds fantastic, Tobias.” Blinky responded in place of his mate, having fond memories of whipped cream from his time as a human- and after. 

“Yes, Dr. L.” Toby nodded, finding some nice green branches that were a good length, “Claire, Ms. Nomura, Marshmallows?” Claire agreed, while Nomura scoffed. Cutting enough branches for everyone, plus a spare few for the inevitable… accidents (mostly of the troll-chow variety), Toby brought the bundle over to his chosen seat between Claire and Aaarrrgghh and started carving points with his pocket knife. 

“Now, what was this about tutoring?” Blinky asked, absently thanking Toby for the spindly pointed stick and fiddling with it, not quite sure yet what it had to do with marshmallows. “I understand the wish for Master Jim to have some sense of normalcy, but why in  _ Bodus’ Name _ would you wish for Strickler to tutor the whelps?”

“Because Walt’s bored, sulky and making a general nuisance out of himself, and he’s someone Jim’s familiar with that knows how to teach human subjects.” Barbara stated baldly, digging the extra large bag of jumbo marshmallows out of the cooler and ripping it open, accidentally spraying a handful across the sands. One managed to land in the fire, which Toby snagged with his bare hand and blew on twice before stuffing it in his mouth with a satisfied hum. Nobody else except Nomura seemed to notice since he tossed another sand-covered one into Aaarrrgghh’s waiting maw, but she swore she saw a glimmer of red on the boy’s hand for the moment his hand was encased with flames. 

“And what about you, what subjects do you wish Master Jim to continue on with?” 

Barbara shrugged tiredly, accepting one of the sticks before thoroughly skewering a marshmallow and thrusting it into the fire, pulling it out a moment later when it had caught on fire and blowing it out. With a sigh, she plucked off the burnt bits and set her marshmallow above the flames this time. “I honestly don’t know. All I can tell you is what his grades were, but not exactly what subjects he actually liked. I knew he was trying to set himself up for culinary school, but that’s obviously- oh, drat.” Barbara’s marshmallow had melted off her stick before tanning, falling into the bonfire.

“Here you go, Dr. L.” Toby offered over his perfectly toasted marshmallow, which Barbara accepted with a sigh, scraping it off his stick with two graham crackers. He couldn’t cook near as well as Jim, but he and marshmallows had an understanding. Retrieving his stick once Barbara skewered another marshmallow for him, Toby stuck the next one in the fire, thoroughly blackening it before popping it into his mouth with a satisfied hum. “What?” He asked, seeing Claire’s look. “I like the char.” Well, it wasn’t the weirdest thing she’d seen Toby eat, that’s for sure. 

“History, since Mr. Strickler taught it.” Claire piped up, carefully rotating her marshmallow, having to blow it out several times when she got it too close to the flame. “Possibly math. If he wants, I can tutor him in Spanish. English, if he wants, but I don’t think we have to worry about gym or human health class any time soon.”

Toby snorted at that. “Jimbo can probably teach you a thing or two about human health class. He’s been reading Dr. L’s books since he  _ could  _ read. He’s certified for emergency aid, by the way. And two words for gym class: Hero’s Forge.” 

Barbara hummed, agreeing with Toby. “I taught him to do sutures the same time I was learning. Jim makes beautiful stitches.”

“Yeah, he does.” showing his arm to Claire, he pointed to a faint scar about two inches long. “Fell off my bike a couple years ago. I had Jimbo fix it, after Dr. L cleaned it up and gave the ok.” 

“Oh, wow.” Claire admired the scar. It was clean enough that she hadn’t noticed it before. That also explained how, even with Jim and Toby’s injuries, Jim only went to the hospital the one time that her Papa had called the ambulance. 

“Do you think Master Jim would be interested in continuing his healer training?” Blinky asked, gently inspecting Toby’s scar himself, comparing it to a newer scar he had acquired during the past summer, where Jim wasn’t the one to treat it. 

“Possibly. I don’t know how different troll and human anatomy are, and I don’t know how much was actual interest, versus just wanting to see what I was learning.”

Biting his lip, Toby gave his next marshmallow to Aaarrrgghh before he made up his mind. “Jimbo was talking to Vendel a lot, after you and Mr. S crashed the car in trollmarket, and especially after he came back from the darklands.”

“I was aware.” Blinky spoke, watching Toby try to chew a hole through his bottom lip. “What I did not know was the subject of their conversations.”

“That’s because Jimbo wanted to keep most of them private. But what I do know is that Jimbo asked a lot about the difference between trolls, changelings and humans at first.” At that wasn’t all, they could tell. “I don’t think he would object to learning at least some healing.” 

Blinky nodded. “I’ll see if we can attract a new healer to trollmarket. Since Vendel passed, there has been a gap in our resources. But in the meantime, I have a few books Master Jim can browse through.” 

“And what about you, Claire? Would you be sitting in on the tutoring sessions, or are you planning on going back to regular school.” 

Claire bit her lip. On one hand, going back to school included going back to Arcadia, with the rest of her friends and her parents, back to normal hours and a real desk. On the other, she would be leaving Jim alone, with nobody to talk to about human things, fully immersing himself into troll culture. And Merlin was there. Sure, he was a total sleazeball, but he  _ was  _ the one teaching her magic. “I’m going to stay with Jim. I have enough credits that I can take a semester off if I wanted to, and still graduate with the rest of the class.” Which was something, unless a miracle happened, Jim wouldn’t get to do. 

A bark from the direction startled them all, but Toby reacted the quickest, rolling over the log and clumsily sprinting to the end of the dock. “Jimbo! You’re back already!” He got a quieter bark in response. From the fire, the others could only see a toby-shaped spot kneeling on the end of the pier, face inches from a not-quite seal-shaped spot bobbing in the water. The spot bobbing in the water lunged up, booping Toby on the nose. “Ugh! Fish breath!” Toby pushed Jim away, getting a seal-bark laugh in response. “I’ll be right back. I’m getting the lantern.” Scrabbling up, Toby rushed toward the truck in the dark, digging around in the trunk (thankfully, Aaarrrgghh had put it on the road for him some time earlier) and putting various supplies in a net bucket, along with a camping lantern he had grabbed at the last minute. 

In the meanwhile, Jim managed to hoist himself up onto the dock, lounging on the very end when Claire came up to him and knelt down beside him. “Oh, my god.” She had both her hands over her mouth and her eyes were shining when he looked back at her. “You’re  _ adorable _ !” She squealed, lunging to touch him, stopping herself at the last moment. “Can I  _ pet you _ ?” her voice dipped into a reverent whisper. Jim nodded, hiding his nose under a flipper in embarrassment, but rolling slightly to be closer to Claire’s reaching hands. 

“Not the most graceful thing on land, is he?” NotEnrique popped up, having to dodge when Jim snapped at him for the comment. “And I thought Tubby was chubby.”

“And just where have you been?” Claire pulled her brat of a brother away from growling, snapping jaws, saving him from becoming seal chow. Or saving Jim from indigestion. 

“Here and there. You know I like to explore, sis.” Claire narrowed her eyes, but nodded. His small size had saved them more than once in the trek, allowing him to scout ahead by squeezing into spaces where most trolls couldn’t get into comfortably. By now, it had become a bit of a habit to scout around before settling into an area. 

Jim also backed down, still growling at the changeling. “How fascinating.” Blinky murmured, daring to test his weight on the floating dock as he carefully stepped forward. “Ah, thank you Tobias, for the illumination.” The human carefully rounded the troll, lantern turned on, and settled it on one of the pylons. In the light, they could see that his fur was the same blue-black color as his troll fur. “You seem to have retained your horns, Master Jim.” Jim startled, rearing back… to about knee height to the others. 

“You’re so cute!” Claire cooed, petting her boyfriend.

“Hehe, if you think he is now, watch this.” Toby grinned, settling himself next to Jim’s head and touched the selkie’s nose. Jim pulled back his head and Toby’s finger followed. “Seal ball!” Toby got a nip to the finger for his joke, but wasn’t injured. 

“Oh, you’re right!” What she would give to take a picture and send it to Mary and Darci, but  _ secrecy _ . A flash came from shore, along with the electronic sound of a camera shutter, startling Blinky into nearly falling off the dock and the rest to blink stars out of their eyes. 

Jim barked in retaliation and it was Barbara who responded. “Oh, hush. I don’t have any recent pictures of you. Nighttime or not, I’m still going to take some, you know that.” Jim growled, but relented, dropping his head onto Toby’s lap.

“You know we can’t stop her, dude. Your mom is fierce with a camera, given the chance.” Jim snorted, nosing the bucket impatiently. “Ah, fine. That’s what you want.” Jim was a minute from digging into the bucket himself when Toby reached in and pulled out the  _ good  _ cat brush. Starting on his head, between his horns, he quickly had Jim a puddle of purring blubber. “He’s a sucker for a good brushing, especially if it’s been a while since he’s worn his pelt.” Toby brushed as far as he could reach before holding the brush out for ether Blinky or Claire to take.

She did so, getting that sweet spot mid-back that Jim just couldn’t reach without help, earning a blissed out groan for her efforts. “He does the same thing when I brush out his scruff. Though I’ve been using a human brush, this is working much better.”

Toby nodded, absently petting Jim as he talked, “The first time, Jim didn’t like the thought of it, but now he fights Mr. Meow-some for rights to that brush. Jimbo would have knocked me off the dock if I forgot it now.” Jim nodded in agreement, rolling slightly so that Claire could do a new patch. 

“... Can I keep this?” Claire asked, halfway between astonishment and amusement. She had blissed out Jim with brushies before, but not to this level of body-melting contentment. 

“Sure. I’ve got at least a dozen of them at home.” 

“Have you tried this on Aaarrrgghh?” Blinky asked, taking his turn when Jim rolled to his side with a huff.

“Of course.” Toby grinned. “Gnome chompsky can only do so much by himself, and I’ve caused at least a couple of the knots, so it's only right to help smooth them out. I even bought a horse brush, so it doesn’t take  _ near  _ as long as it used to.”

“Aaarrrgghh does seem better groomed, now that I think about it.” Blinky’s musing grin dropped as Jim rolled completely on his back, exposing his sternum to the three hovering over him. “Oh, dear.”

“That… looks bad, Jimbo. You didn’t tell me it was that bad.” Looking down at his own chest, Jim tried to roll away, only to be stopped by four sets of hands. “Hey, no. It’s ok, Jimbo. That just looks a lot worse than it probably is.” Toby, bracing Jim’s head with his horns on either side of a thigh, reached down and carefully pet over the stark white starburst on his chest. They had known that Jim had gotten hit bad by Morgana’s magic, but they didn’t know just how bad it was. First, the armor that had taken too long to come off, then Jim refusing to take off his shirt, though it was bordering on too small on him in his new body. The Jacket had been a total loss though. 

The starburst was a different texture as the surrounding fur, rough and bristly, still growing in. In a few seasons, it would probably even feel like the surrounding fur, but the color would likely remain bleached from the damage. 

“When we get back to the market, I have a stone-replenishing putty that we can put on it, it might help reduce the scarring.” Blinky offered, carefully brushing over the fragile skin, not wanting to hurt his foster son. “Does it hurt?” 

Reluctantly, Jim shook his head with a low bark. He’d had enough being belly-up and shuffled to his other side to get the last remaining bit. 

Finishing with the brushing session, Jim took a few moments to let himself just be pet all over before reluctantly rousing himself. Looking out to the water, then back at Toby, he grasped his friend’s hand softly and gave it a gentle tug. Knowing he had Toby’s attention, he looked between him and the water a few times before giving an excited bark. With how limited he was communicating in this form, he was glad they had worked out how to use morse code, or they’d be playing a game of Lassie for the rest of the night until he got his point across.

“You found something?” Jim nodded, tapping out B-O-A-T with his claw. “Awesomesauce. Is there anything good?” Bobbling his head in an uncertain gesture, he tapped out N-E-W-I-S-H. He didn’t know, not having spent much time exploring before coming back to shore. It was big, at least, so it had a chance of having something good. Even better, it looked like it hadn’t been too picked over by scavenging divers, being a bit deeper than they usually went without some serious equipment. “Sweet. Let’s go then!” 

“Go where?” Claire asked, getting a momentarily blank look from both boys.

“Uh…” The boys looked at each other before giving Claire a guilty look, Toby’s tee-shirt already half- removed, showing that the black pants he was wearing was actually a wetsuit. “Jim found a boat wreck and we were going to go check it out.” 

“It’s September, that water has got to be half-frozen, are you nuts?” 

Toby plucked at his clothes. “Wetsuit. And I don’t really get cold easily.” He shrugged, pulling out what looked like a tangle of straps and a collapsible bag before shoving his shirt into the net bucket. “Hey,” Toby leaned close with a grin after making sure the bag’s carabiner was secured to his weight belt. “Next time, you can come with us, when the water is warmer. At least this isn’t the Christmas dive, then you’d get to see Jimbo going crazy over ice floes. Even I don't go in when it's  _ that  _ cold out. If there’s anything interesting, we’ll bring it up for you to see, would that be ok?”

“Yeah…” Claire thought for a moment. On one hand, she really wanted to go out there with the boys, but on the other, she was having flashes of nearly drowning in that cargo container while rescuing the Killahead bridge pieces. “Ok."

“Great!” forgetting himself, Toby kissed Claire’s cheek, while Jim pressed his nose against the other. “See you later then!” Both slid into the water, with about the same amount of grace. She wasn’t sure if her squeak was out of surprise being double-kissed, or getting splashed by the icy water.


	3. Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little more talking, some treasure hunting and the reemergence of Chef Jim.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is liberal mention and use of ASL (American Sign Language) from this point on in the series. While I have done my best to be true to the language, I do not know more than a painfully few signs (I had to look up nearly every sign I mention explicitly), so please excuse my clumsy attempt at adding what I feel is a necessary element to Jim and Toby's backstory/relationship. _Lines in sign are marked with italics. Thank you._

Treading water, Toby untangled the ball of straps in his hands. “Ready, Jimbo?” The seal nodded, splashing Toby a little with his nose before circling his friend to float in front of him. At the first touch of the harness, Jim bucked, thrown into a flashback, and dived. Toby, startled, absently gripped the harness to make sure that it didn’t sink. “...Jim?” Looking around, he couldn’t see the selkie anywhere on the surface. “Come on, buddy, show yourself.” He muttered to himself, slowly rotating on the spot.

Two tense minutes later, Jim resurfaced, sheepishly swimming closer and headbutting Toby’s chest apologetically. “No, it’s ok Jimbo. You weren’t ready. Do you want to try again, or should we just freeswim it?” It would take longer, but Toby was willing to forego the harness if it made Jim uncomfortable.

Visibly taking a deep breath, Jim got back into position, steadying himself. “Ok, yeah.” Toby murmured, keeping one hand on Jim’s back while he slid the straps into place. “Rotate your flippers, Jimbo. See, you’re not being bound. I’m not restraining you.” Toby spoke intentionally in a steady voice, taking it slow as he tightened the straps. “Can I snug them up, or should I keep them loose?” They both knew that the harness was didn’t chafe as badly when it didn’t have room to accidently slide around, or off. 

Wiggling around a bit, Jim managed to snag the edge of one of the straps and pull, nodding his head. “Ok, just tell me if it gets too much.” Jim nodded again and Toby tightened them only leaving enough room to be comfortable. The harness itself wasn’t really complicated, based on a backpack’s straps. There were two loops for his flippers to go through, with a neck/chest strap at the top and a belly strap at the bottom. In the middle across his back was a third strap that was slightly looser and padded, intended to be used as a handle.Grabbing the handle with a reverse grip, Toby twisted his hand this way and that, letting Jim feel the movement. They had worked out signals a few years ago, using the harness, but Toby still checked every time they did this. At one time, they had a safety strap that went around Toby’s wrist, but after an incident involving a big scare for the both of them, they relied more on the boy’s grip strength just in case he had to let go quickly. 

Taking his own steadying breath, Toby patted Jim’s side and made sure his bag and weights/accessory belt was secure. “I’m ready when you are.” With a grunt of agreement, Jim dived.

* * *

Sixty seconds, they had been down there for over a minute and counting and they had yet to come up for Toby to breathe. “Doctor Barbara, correct me if I am wrong…” Blinky watched the water with a brow that was steadily getting more furrowed. “But If I am recalling this correctly, humans can only hold their breath for about a minute at a time.”

“That’s right.” Barbara nodded, pouting when she sent another marshmallow up into flames. “Why?”

“It has been over that, and unless Master Jim is incredibly fast, we should have seen him and Tobias surface at least once by now.”

“...Ah…” It was a loaded sound, with both understanding and reluctance. “Uh.” She bit her lip, looking out to the water. The boys had apparently not explained things while she was out renting the truck, made even more apparent with the longer that they were underwater, the more Claire and Aaarrrgghh were looking like they were ready to swim out after them. “Claire, Sweetie, Aaarrrgghh,” She called over the two, beckoning them over. “Come sit down with us. The boys are fine.” Apparently, it was up to her to explain. She thought that the boys already had, what with Toby’s open comfort levels around the bonfire- and his warhammer. The trolls, at least Blinky and Aaarrrgghh, had acted unsurprised, though Nomura, now that she was sifting through her memories, seemed perturbed. 

Reluctantly, the two did as they were bidden, settling back around the campfire. Without Toby to absently maintain it, the fire was starting to gutter and dim, tossing out green sparks from the salt-infused wood, so Barbara tossed a few more branches into it. “You just talked about Jim being a Selkie the whole time, didn’t you?” Barbara asked, trying not to sound accusing. 

“That was the topic of choice earlier, yes.” Blinky nodded, getting the feeling that he was missing something. Something Big, judging by the way that Barbara compressed her lips while thinking.

“I love my boys.” Barbara started off slowly, working out exactly what she was going to say. “But sometimes they are idiots.” 

Nomura choked, laughing at Barbara’s dry tone. “But then again, I can see why they didn’t say anything. Jim didn’t tell you about being a selkie, so of course Toby wouldn’t say anything either. If nothing else, Toby is loyal. And dedicated, but that’s a whole other thing.” Barbara waved off her own statement, taking a long stick from the pile to stir the fire before it caught light and she tossed that one in as well. 

“The short if it is, Toby’s a dragon.” Her statement was met with silence, then they started to talk at once… except for Aaarrrgghh, who nodded, seeming like he knew this already.

“He’s a  _ what _ ?”

“Dragon’s are extinct!”

“Ha! I knew I saw something!” Nomura crowed.

Barbara nodded her head, deciding to answer Blinky’s statement. “Dragons technically  _ are  _ extinct, as far as we’re aware. Jim once told me about this bird on one of those tiny tropical islands. I think it was a finch or something, that was wiped out when the island flooded about a hundred years ago. Then a few years ago, some scientists went to the island, and there was that extinct finch, just as real as you or I. The thing is, it had evolved from the finch from a neighboring island that hadn’t been flooded. Ralph, from what Nancy told me, was a fire elemental spirit. And he married a Drake-kin.”

“So He’s actually a Drake-kin with a fire affinity.” Blinky nodded to himself.

“Nope.” Barbara shook her head. “Toby’s full dragon. Fire-breathing and all. There was an... incident when the boys were about eight and Toby shifted. All I remember is that the poor boy was sick for quite a while when he finally managed to shift back. It was also the skinniest I’ve ever seen him, too. We nearly lost him. Dragons are not supposed to have their first shift until they’ve passed a century, unless it's a life or death situation.”

“What happened when they were eight?” Claire asked, matching Barbara’s quiet tone.

“They were nearly taken from each other. When they’re comfortable, they might tell you more than that, eventually, but don’t push for the story. They won’t even tell me everything that happened.”

“So… what does that have to do with Tubby apparently not needing to breathe air, doc?” NotEnrique piped up, not worried about the kids at all, nope.

“It’s because he doesn’t. Need oxygen like the rest of us do, I mean. according to the books that the boys have been able to find, a dragon’s air exchange is reversed from practically every other creature that I’m aware of. they practiced in a safe environment with a touch of a water spell to make it easier before I let them first go off on excursions like this.”

“A water spell, not just something like…” Claire pressed her fingertips in a gesture she had seen Jim use a time or two before.

“Does that make you uncomfortable, Claire?” Barbara asked softly. “It’s similar, but no. it's a small water bubble where they exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. No kissing involved unless it's intentional.”

“Oh.” Claire didn’t know if she was disappointed or relieved. “Ok.”

“Fascinating, so using this method, how long do you say that they could stay underwater?” Blinky asked, itching for a notebook to write this all down in. and Barbara had said that the boys had  _ books  _ about it as well.

“A few hours, if they wanted to. Possibly indefinitely, but they said that the air got a bit stale after a while.”

“You don't seem too surprised over this, Aaarrrgghh.” Nomura spoke up, having watched the gentle giant’s non-reaction.

“Not mine to tell.” Aaarrrgghh shrugged. “Wingman always smell like smoke and scales. Not burning. Sweet smoke.”

“I had thought it was a side effect from his weapon of choice, dear friend.” Blinky looked up at his mate, who hook his head.

“Hammer not fire. Wingman is fire.”

“He’s been using it as a focus, you mean.” Barbara looked between the two trainers. “No wonder he didn’t say anything, he thought you both probably knew and didn’t say anything.

“That is possible.” Blinky nodded, looking worried. “But why would the boy not come to us for proper training? He trains by sparring with Claire, yes, but he could have been doing so much more.”

Barbara gave Blinky a small smile. “It’s because you were Jim’s trainers first, and Toby, as he keeps reminding us, is ‘just the sidekick’. He didn’t want to take focus away from what you needed to teach Jim.”

“But, he wouldn’t. It doesn’t take but a few moments to focus on his own specialties during a session.”

“Use forge now.” Aaarrrgghh patted Blinky on the head. “Train with others. Come visit.” He shrugged. He had been focusing more on Toby in the first place during their training, but hadn’t quite figured out what was missing to make the boy succeed. Toby was a master of avoiding a subject if he didn’t want to talk about it. It also explained why there was, he was told, an excessive amount of fire extinguishers in both homes, to the point where one or two had even found its way down to the forge, as well as Blinky’s library once the boys had started spending time there. He had found out what the red cylinders were for one day after he had tried to snack on one. There were few things that Toby was ever mad about, but the day that he touched the extinguisher was one of those days. His voice yelled, but his eyes showed real terror. Not of potential fires, but, he knew now, of setting those fires himself. 

“It's a good thing that kid’s not full fire elemental then.” Nomura flicked her hand toward the water. “Because getting in the water like that is just suicidal and the kid’s not  _ that  _ much of an idiot.” 

* * *

Diving down deeper than he expected, Toby tapped Jim to stop for a moment and pulled a glowstick out from one of his belt pouches, activating it and turning their surroundings a yellow color. Hopefully, they were almost there. No wonder the shipwreck was practically untouched. It had fallen into a crevasse in the bay and was definitely deeper than the most dedicated scuba divers would usually go. He could feel the pressure, but it still wasn’t the deepest that they had gone before, though the water was colder than he was ready for. Absently, Toby remembered reading that the atlantic ocean was generally warmer than the pacific, but he had to beg to differ. That, or comparing Southern California to New Jersey in the fall was just not fair. He definitely was going to stay on land for the christmas dive. 

Eventually, a large boat loomed in front of them, highlighted eerily by the yellow glow of the stick that he carried. The hull was completely metal, so it was a relatively modern boat, but not the fiberglass that was starting to be popular these days either. The deck didn’t carry any weapons, so it wasn’t military in design, In fact, there didn’t seem to be much on the deck  _ at all _ , so they didn’t quite know  _ what  _ they would find once they found a way in. 

‘ _ Creepy.’  _ the thought floated across both their minds, not quite sure who had ‘spoken’ it. It wasn’t often, but when they were in sync, they could share some simple thoughts, but more often a stray emotion or two. Between Jim’s natural empathy and Toby’s learned, it was easy (most of the time) for them to read the other. Claire, well, she was still a mystery most days, but the rough edges of their relationships were slowly wearing away and slotting into place. It would just take more work than they had time for the past year. 

Swimming closer, they were able to find a door, which, blessedly, had either been left open as the boat sunk, or had previously been forced open. They didn’t want to think about the implications if it was the latter. “ _ Ready?” _ Toby signed with a challenging smirk, getting a firm nod in response. Down there, Toby led the way with his glowstick. The first couple of doors were locked, (or at least stuck shut) but eventually they came upon an open door. Which turned out to be the galley, apparently. Rolling his eyes in fond exasperation, Toby unclipped his collapsible bag and shook it out, taking one side of the room while Jim took the other. Finding the silverware drawer, Toby inspected the pieces inside carefully before shrugging and taking them all. If they turned out to be worthless, at least the trolls could have a snack. 

“ _ Found anything interesting?”  _ Toby asked, looking to where Jim was still nosing around. It took a minute, but Jim eventually shook his head and led the way down the hall. Down the hallway and past a few more doors, they decided to take the stairwell down to the next level. Pulling out a light-reflective crayon, he marked the stairwell and which direction they had come from, having learned from past mistakes exploring large city-sized boats with their maze-like corridors. It was the same life skill that made Jim always keep a piece of chalk in his back pocket- which had saved his life in more than one way in the Darklands. 

Finally, they were getting someplace interesting. The entire corridor was filled with small luxury apartments, showing that this had likely been some sort of small cruise boat. There had likely been deck furniture, but it had washed away, either during or soon after the sinking. Entering the first apartment, Toby absently noted that time had not been nice to the fabrics inside. He was sure, if he were to pry open one of the closed doors, that those rooms had fared better, if barely, by limiting access from the various marine creatures swimming around. Most of what had been left behind, in fact, was in the process of severe decay. Agreeing that they could come back to the boat another time, they would leave the doors alone, this time. 

* * *

Making his way ashore, Toby lugged his full bag of ‘treasures’ behind him, absently wiping the hair out of his face.

“I told them.” Barbara spoke up, looking over from the conversation the group was having.

“Uh… what?” Toby was caught off guard. “Told them what?”

“About your abilities.” 

“My…? Oh.” With that, Toby started steaming, literally. He ran his hands through his hair, fluffing it out within moments. “Ok, Dr. L.” He wasn’t mad. In fact, he was almost relieved. He had been trying to figure out how to tell the others for months now, especially after Jim confessed about being a selkie the previous night. Now dry, Toby left his treasure bag next to the fire (And out of Aaarrrgghh’s reach) before going out onto the dock and grabbing the net bucket and his shirt. Taking a moment to peel out of the top half of his wetsuit, he tied the arms around his waist and tossed on the tee, more concerned about smoothing out his freshly flash-dried hair.

“You know,” Claire stated dryly when he got close to the fire, “That shirt was a lot funnier before.”

“Hu…?” Toby looked down at his shirt and grimaced. It was not the shirt that he had meant to grab, but he would rather be wearing a shirt, than to be stuck in the full wetsuit or shirtless.

“Well,  _ I  _ think it’s hilarious.” Nomura smirked

“You would.” Toby groaned. “This was Jimbo’s idea of a present for my birthday last year.” The shirt had a picture of a dragon, wrapped around a ketchup bottle, with the words ‘Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup’ in fancy calligraphy. Ever since meeting the trolls and finding out exactly what Gumm-Gumms were  _ known _ for, the joke had lost its appeal. He only kept it in the back of his closet for sentimental reasons. “Speaking of, Jimbo’s out getting dinner right now. He’ll be back in a bit.” 

Barbara nodded, knowing the routine. And since they all knew already, Toby didn’t think twice as he reached into the fire and started rearranging red hot stones onto a relatively flat surface to put a grill on. When he was ready, Barbara handed over the cast iron griddle, which was flat on one side and had grooves to produce grill marks on the other. This one, Jim had spent some extra cash on, getting the handles covered in silicon so he had less of a chance of touching the burning iron by accident. Knowing Jim, Toby placed the griddle flat side up and let it warm. 

“Fascinating.” Blinky leaned closer, gesturing to see one of Toby’s hands. “A reaction like this, I have never in my wildest dreams seen before.” Complying, even if a little hesitantly, Toby held his hand out for Blinky to inspect. 

The hand itself hadn’t changed, but the skin was now covered in scales, and his nails were short claws. Rubbing at what he thought was soot, Blinky discovered that the back of his hand up to about halfway up to his elbows was a black scale, fading to a bright red at the edges. The softer scales on his palms were broader and completely red, with the skin between them a bright yellow, so it looked like cooling lava. “Simply astounding.” Blinky tested a blackened claw, finding it was sharp enough to potentially damage if Toby willed them to.

“Uh, yeah…” Gently taking his hand back, Toby rubbed his hands together like he was washing the scales off. Eventually, after a few minutes of concentration, his hands were back to normal (all but the base of his nails, which now all looked like he had slammed his fingertips into a door.) “It’s a neat party trick.” Toby tried to shrug it off, moving over to his treasure bag and setting out a trio of pie tins that had been stored in the bucket. He didn’t want to admit it, but the forced change had exhausted him. A serious reminder just why shifting more than a small thing was dangerous for his health.

“Though I must ask something, Tobias. Gatto’s Keep…” 

“I nearly pushed you off that rock for taking my Diablo Maximus Breakfast Burrito.” Toby stated dryly, concentrating on sorting things between ‘trash (AKA troll food)’ ‘treasure’ and ‘potential’ pie tins. “I don’t know about you, but getting eaten by a  _ volcano troll dude _ counts as a life-threatening situation. And you  _ chucked  _ my  _ emergency food _ into the  ** _lava_ ** .” 

“That… I haven’t the foggiest what that has to do with you being a dragon. And it did facilitate our, erm, escape, after all.”

“Also, the gold hoarding thing is a gross exaggeration. And vaguely anti-semitic.” He plowed on, holding up a necklace, Toby inspected it in the light of the fire before putting it in the ‘treasure’ tin, along with the matching earrings, when he came across them. A handful of mother-of-pearl handled cutlery went into the Troll-food tin. “Though it is true we collect things that are interesting… or shiny.” A diamond ring went into the potential tin. 

“I was actually meaning how you seemed to be uncomfortable in Ojos del Salado, but was comfortable sticking your hand in the fire just now to rearrange the stones.” 

“...Oh.” Toby was silent for a few minutes, trying to figure out exactly what to say while he sorted out the bag.

“That one’s pretty.” Clare pointed out as Toby picked up a chunky necklace holding a teardrop shaped tiger’s eye. 

“Hmm…” He held it up and inspected the metal for flaws before clasping it around her neck. “It’s supposed to bring good luck and clarity.” Staring at it for a moment lying over Claire’s shirt, he eventually nodded and settled back into the sand. 

“I was uncomfortable because Jim was. Making a big deal out of it took the focus off of Jim’s discomfort, so he could concentrate on what he needed to.” Toby stated eventually. It was the truth, but not the whole truth. He could feel the heat on his skin and was comforted by it, but Jim had been a few moments away from fainting when he had used their link to pull the heat away from him. It was the same and opposite as when he entered the water. They were opposite elements, and suffered for it. Honestly, if it wasn’t for his clothes and Blinky, he could have probably pulled a Smaug and come out the better for it… or at least physically unscathed. Mentally, well, hindsight of being shat out of a giant volcanic mountain troll… you could only laugh or scream in terror. And he had done that enough in the process, it was time to laugh over it. 

“Here.” Barbara reached over and tapped his shoulder with a full-size Nugat Nummy bar. “This should tide you over until Jim gets back.” 

Toby grinned gratefully and took the bar, biting off a huge chunk before balancing the rest on his knee. “Thanks Dr. L.”

“With a look like that, you’d think he’d expire waiting like the rest of us.” Nomura scoffed, crossing her arms. She got glares and inhaled breaths, gearing up to defend their smallest, only to be stopped by an unexpected wry chuckle.

“Do you know how much I would  _ love _ to be able to not be stuffing my gob?” Toby intentionally took another, smaller, bite before continuing. “But you, of everyone here, should know how much energy a single shift costs. The honey in these things is just an energy booster until I can get a real meal, though.”

All he got from the two changelings was a confused look, which in turn confused Toby. “You… have no clue what I’m talking about? The law of energy transfer. The energy it takes to shift has to come from somewhere…” Toby’s pupils shrank as he got a horrific idea, staring into the fire. The children… “Where did the energy you used to shift come from?”

Nomura and NotEnrique exchanged looks before the smaller shrugged. “Look, Tubby, it’s not like we asked about these types of things in changeling 101. It's not like we had any limits to how many times we could shift in a day.” 

“It can be exhausting if we changed rapidly several times in a row, but overall it's a little more thought than breathing.” The children… They were likely pint-sized batteries. Thinking back, every baby pulled out of the cradlestone so far was on the lower end of the curve for healthy weight for their sizes. They were taken care of in the Darklands, yes, but they generally did not thrive in there. And, oh deity, he was thinking so loud that a wash of concern brushed his mind from Jim. 

Finishing off the first half of the candy bar, Toby forced himself to calm, sending back reassuring vibes. “Right, ok. Yeah.” Toby nodded to himself, scratching at a spot on his wrist where the scales had refused to retract completely. “I guess changelings don’t follow the normal rules of magical energy then.” 

“...The tacos.” Clare stated those two words were the key to the universe. “That’s why you always are stress-eating those tacos.” 

“Ok, first of all, I don’t stress-eat.” Toby held up his finger. “I anxiety eat. There is a difference. And two, I  _ like _ tacos. With all the crazy-town banana-pants situations we got into, I needed the boost, even if I was never forced into a shift, thank Gorb. And fire,” Toby reached out and… plucked a flame out of the fire, where it danced merrily on his red-scaled palm. “Takes a lot of energy to control.” He closed his hand, snuffing out the flame. “I’ve lost weight. And while that’s great, since I’m at least  _ trying _ to watch what I eat, I don’t want to get sick because some whacko decides to attack me.” 

“And your body should be gearing up for a growth spurt some time soon.” Barbara added.

“ _ Hopefully.”  _ Toby growled, “Being short’s fine, but I’d like to not have to talk to my best friend’s belly button.” Claire caught her snort, choking on it and getting a grin from Toby in response. He had hoped to get that reaction out of her. Then again, it didn’t really help that he was the lowest-sitting person in the group. Even NotEnrique had perched himself on a shoulder. 

A brush of his mind had him turning toward the dock, where he saw a familiar horned head bobbing at the end. “Hey, Jimbo’s back.” Toby got up, handed his half-eaten candy to Claire, and brushed the sand off the seat of his pants before grabbing a pair of blue swim-trunks from the bucket. Walking over the end of the dock, Toby crouched to be closer before holding out the trunks. “Hey, feel like joining us on shore yet?”

Jim nodded, is trollish features clashing oddly with his selkie ones, making his face start to lean into uncanny valley territory. His face was softer-looking and his eyes were mostly black, with the smallest circle of blue at the edge. “Yes, I-” Jim barely whispered out before Toby held out a stalling hand.

Putting down the trunks within easy reach for Jim, Toby spoke and signed at the same time. “Hey, you don’t have to push it if you don’t want to. You know that my voice belongs to you, Jimbo.” 

Taking a deep breath, Jim nodded, looking past Toby to the others sitting around the campfire. “ _ Yes _ . _ I trust you. Is everything set up?”  _ The signs were garbled, between the dark and Jim’s bobbing in the water.

“Griddle’s on the fire, other ingredients in the cooler, so we’re just waiting on you, Chef Jimbo. Need any help scaling the fish?” 

“ _ Please. If you want.” _ Jim nodded, grabbing for the shorts to pull on before he hoisted himself up onto the dock. He wore his furs like a long coat, the end brushing his ankles, even with his extended height. 

“I wouldn’t offer if I didn’t mean it. You know that.” Toby held his hand out, taking the net’s handles as Jim handed them over. “Now, let’s see what goodies you managed to catch this time.” Opening the bag, Toby shifted through the contents and let out a low whistle. “You’re really making a name out of taking on things bigger than you, eh Jimbo?” 

“ _ Oh, shut up Tobes _ .” Jim snapped back with a flip of his hand. Taking the first fish, he set it on the dock before taking a claw and gutting it quickly, dumping the offal into the water. He handed it over to Toby, who attacked it with the dull side of his pocket knife to remove the scales and fins. Jim did the same thing with a second fish, using his claws instead of the knife. 

Working in companionable silence, they worked their way through the pile. While Jim usually caught one or two small fish each when it was just him Toby and Barbara, he had gone all-out and caught enough that even Aaarrrgghh would have a decent meal. And they weren’t small fish either. While there was a bass or two, they were mostly a variety that Toby later looked up called, simply enough, Blue Fish. 

Reaching blindly into the net for his next fish, Toby pulled out an eel. As soon as he realized what he had his hand wrapped around, he screamed and full-out yeeted it back out into the bay. “Oh, Ugh. Ugh. Yech. Oh!” He danced around, holding his hand out like it was infected. “ **JIM!!!” **

Jim, panicking because Toby was, stood up and started apologising. “ _ Tobes, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I’m so-” _ Toby took a wrong step off the side of the dock, attempting to stay out of touching distance, with a splash, the water flash boiling around the boy as he swam to shore, not even bothering to attempt to crawl back up on the deck. Jim followed alongside, walking the deck at pace and still trying to apologize, though the other couldn’t read his signs.

“Jim, I’m fine.” Toby sighed, carefully staying out of Jim’s reach and stepping back when Jim moved closer. “I’m just… going to go get some soap from Dr. L.” He effected a full-body shudder of disgust. 

“I don’t know where that eel came from.” Jim whispered, knowing his signs weren’t working.

“I know. Accidents happen. Just make sure you and the fish are all scrubbed down, ok?”

“ _ Yes. Of course.”  _ Jim nodded, watching the shorter return to the campfire and request the heavy-duty soap, which Barbara readily complied, handing him a small yellow squeeze bottle. In the process, Claire looked over in curiosity, but didn’t move from her seat. Taking the soap, Toby moved down the beach to some cleaner water and thoroughly scrubbed his hands and up to his elbows, spraying sickly yellow compact suds everywhere in the process. He did it two more times before feeling better and making sure to dissipate the foam before leaving the water. The soap itself was environmentally friendly, but was a hospital-grade brand that Barbara had… liberated some from the hospital a few years ago. 

Walking back over to the dock, Toby tossed Jim the soap bottle, making sure he scrubbed down as well. Even though he hadn’t actually touched the eel, it had been in with the rest of the fish. Squeezing out a large dollop into his palm, Jim made sure to scrub up to his elbows, taking special care around his claws before washing down the bottle as well. When both he and the bottle had been rinsed off, he gave it back to Toby to return. 

“ _ I’ll finish up the fish and meet you by the fire. You get first pick.” _ Jim signed, getting a nod in response. There were only a few more to go anyway. And now he had to thoroughly rinse all the fish from potential contamination from the eel. At least along the dock where Toby had swam, the water was boiled free of any other contaminants… or anything living at all. Jim mentally apologised to the bodies of some small fish and a frog or two that were being carried out into the bay. 

* * *

“Toby?” 

“ _ No Touch!” _ Toby signed, baring his teeth and stepping back before catching himself.

“What happened?” Claire asked softly, her hand raised to do just that. She watched as Toby put the soap bottle down next to Barbara instead of just touching her to hand it over. 

Sighing, he slumped into his spot, pulling his knees up and made the same sign, shaking his head. “Sorry, just give me a moment. I don’t do well with eels and one made its way in with the other fish. I got startled.”

“Oh.” She wanted to ask why Toby was so anti-eel, but that was a question to ask when he had calmed down. “...Jim’s been really quiet lately.” She tried to change the subject.

What she didn’t expect, was for Toby to grin widely and shake his head, settling into a more comfortable position. “He hasn’t been quiet, you just don’t know how to listen.” He said with a touch of mirth and having had to repeat the line frequently. His hands moved in a more purposeful way than she was used to talking with his hands, ending with tapping his ear twice.

“...Oh.” Claire’s eyes sharpened, not recognizing the individual signs, but realizing what Toby was doing. And thinking back on it, Toby wasn’t just talking with his hands, he really was  _ talking _ with them. How many conversations had she missed, not knowing half of what was being said between the boys. It was part of why she worked so hard on her Trollish, and Spanish for when she visited her grandparents. “What was the first thing that you said then?”

“Hmm? Oh!” Toby repeated the sign, touching the back of his left hand with his right middle finger. “Touch.” He repeated it a few times clearly. “And shaking my head is universal. So I said ‘No’ and ‘Touch’.” He combined the two signs into the one he had first growled out a few minutes’ previous. 

“You know…” Toby spoke up after a few minutes contemplating the fire, both speaking and signing clearly. “Jimbo never said a spoken word until he was eight. We were friends since we started the same kindergarten class. I needed  _ some  _ way to talk to my best friend for those first three years.” 

“Oh, Barbara must have you a lot then.” Claire smiled over at the doctor, who shook her head.

“Sorry, no.” She signed as well, but they seem more stilted and simplistic. “That was more of a James thing. I did start taking Toby to Jim’s speech therapy sessions when they asked though.” Barbara only used a handful of signs that she highly doubted made the complete sentence. 

“If you’re wondering.” Toby drew Claire’s attention back. “Those signs were Sorry. No. Dad. Boy. Son. Talk and Please.” He repeated the signs two ways: how Barbara’s were, then actual ASL. 

“Yes.” Barbara nodded ruefully, making a knocking motion with her hand as well. “I never got past the ‘babytalk’ phase, unfortunately. I can get by, but there have been times when I’ve had to ask Jim or Toby to translate for a nonverbal patient when the on-call translator was unavailable.” 

“So. Many. Medical terms.” Toby’s eyes were wide and turned down, just outright fingerspelling the phrase ‘medical terms’ to prove his point. 

Walking up, Jim greeted everyone with a wave, his pelt shortened to a hooded vest with the hood pulled up to behind his horns. The net of fish dangling from his opposite hand he took an unused trash bag and spread it out on the sand, setting his fish down so there wouldn’t be any unwanted grit. While the trolls would love theirs seasoned with sand, the humans, not so much. Turning, he dove into the cooler to pull out his travel kit of spices and a few lemons and onions that his mother had remembered to toss in as well. “ _ First choice Tobes, which one do you want? _ ” Jim signed, his head still in the cooler. 

“First choice Tobes, which one do you want?” Toby dutifully parroted for the others, making Jim accidently slam his horns into the cooler lid in surprise. He rubbed his head, more out of habit than any actual pain and looked at the others before locking eyes with Toby. He tapped his nose to sign his understanding before going back trying to sniff out the pepper, which had escaped his baggie of spices. “I’ll take the bass, Jimbo.” 

He got an absent thumbs up before Jim stopped and turned, giving Toby an evil look. He signed something that frankly looked… exotic. “Jimbo no.” Toby warned, only to get a waggled brow in response. “Don’t make me say it.” He whined this time, getting a wide grin and another phrase in response. Toby sighed, slumping. “Fine~ ‘I’m all about that bass, ‘bout that bass, no treble.” He said in the most monotonous voice he could, getting a double thumbs up and a thank you in response. “That’s not near as funny as you think it is.”

“ _ No, it’s hilarious, making you say it. _ ” Toby’s one handed response did not need interpreted for the other humans (and changelings) to understand. 

“I… don’t get it.” Claire piped up, watching the interaction, though she had a good guess. 

Looking up at the heavens in a plea for mercy, Toby scooted close enough to whisper in her ear. “Literal translation here: I like her body, her ass, no problems.” Sitting back, he decided to explain to everyone else as well. “It’s from a song that was on the radio a couple years ago. ASL isn’t really a straight word-for-word english translation, though it can be. It has its own… quirks? Slang words? It makes the song a lot more… adult, than is supposed to play on the radio.”

“And now imagine a group of twelve-year-olds in an ASL class singing along with it.” Barbara stated baldly, shaking her head.

A snap from Jim’s direction drew everyone’s attention, but his eyes were on Toby. “ _ Whole, steak or fillet? _ ” he asked, making sure his signs were clear as well, though the two had been signing for the better part of a decade with each other. It was rude to mumble in others’ presences, after all. 

“Whole, steak or fillet.” Toby mused before looking at the fish that Jim was holding up. “Steak, please, Jimbo. My normal way.” Jim nodded, flicking his index finger out from his upper lip absently. He sliced the fish into approximately two inch rounds and put a cheyanne black pepper rub on all the available surfaces before trapping them all in a long-handled grill basket with few lemon and onion slices. Then he surprised them all by just outright thrusting the entire contraption into the center of the fire without a by-your-leave. 

“Heath- oi” Toby cut himself off from translating for Jim, who gave him a dry look, and literally fingerspelled out his next statement so that there would be no mistaking it. “Fish flavored charcoal.”

“Hey, I  _ like _ my charcoal, ok!” Toby exclaimed getting a stuck-out tongue and an over exaggerated motion of disgust in response before turning to his mom. Toby responded by beaning Jim in the head with a piece of said charcoal.

“ _ Did you...?” _ Jim turned around with an astonished face, rubbing where the piece of burnt wood hit. 

Toby raised a challenging brow, “ _ so what if I did? _ ” 

“ _ You’re dead! _ ” Jim groped around blindly for the piece of charcoal and chucked it back as hard as he dared, hitting with a solid thunk and leaving a black mark on the formerly white tee shirt and making Toby fall backwards with an overdramatic groan.

“Wingman, catch!” Toby lobbed the chunk in Aaarrrgghh’s direction from where he was lying on his back. It was a horrid throw, but somehow the gentle giant managed to catch it in his mouth anyway.

“Mmm… Tasty.” There were very few things that Toby had found that Aaarrrgghh  _ wouldn’t _ eat. Comfortable and not really wanting to get up, Toby decided to just lay there for a few minutes, translating for Jim be damned.

“Fillet, honey. Thank you.” Jim must have asked his mother the same question.

“Oh! Uh… I don’t really… like… fish.” Claire mumbled, it sounded like she was biting her lip. 

Looking up at Jim, he saw a confused blank look cross his face before he nodded and dug around the cooler. Coming up, he reached over and gave Toby’s ankle a tap. “Yeah, I’m up.” He took another few moments to sit up to see Jim properly. “Is it the taste, or the smell? Mom packed sausages- no, sorry- hotdogs. You can have those if you want, with grilled veggies.” 

He saw Claire give him an odd look for using the word ‘mom’ instead of ‘Dr. L’, but didn’t say anything about it. “The taste. It’s too… fishy, I guess. I’ve never really liked fish.” 

Jim bobbed his head in understanding. “Do you mind If I do yours after mom’s, or would you like to go first?”

“I can wait.”

“Ok.” Jim flashed a smile with the sign before turning to the troll contingent. “Everyone else, I’m making… Uh… Jimbo?” Toby wavered, before having a quick conversation with Jim in sign before agreeing on a description. “That raw fish thing almost like Nomura did the other day. Does anyone want theirs prepared differently, or am I good? Aaarrrgghh, do you want your fish just whole?” Jim indicated one fish that… honestly, was nearly the length of Jim’s seal body. Toby could only imagine how  _ that  _ catch went.

“Hmm... “ Aaarrrgghh indicated with his hands. “Big pieces.” Both Jim and Toby lit up, showing the proper signs for ‘big’ and ‘piece’, which Aaarrrgghh repeated with a grin. Blinky and Claire were even following along, though not as grandly. 

“Ok!” Jim spoke for himself, still quiet, but able to be heard across the fire clearly. Aaarrrgghh trying ASL just loosened something in his chest. Pulling the fish cage out of the fire, he inspected it and then pointed it at Toby, forcing him to take it or get more charcoal streaks across his shirt.

“Jeez Jimbo,” Toby grumbled, taking the red-hot metal. “And you called me the heathen. Do I at least get a plate?” Jim looked at the paper plate he had just pulled out, to Toby, and back to the plate, starting to exaggerate putting it away again. “Ah, come on!” Grinning, Jim flipped the plate up behind his head briefly, mimicking a halo. “Yes, yes, you’re the perfect angel. With  _ horns.  _ Now feed me.” Digging out a fork, Jim traded the hot basket (he held it by the silicone handles only) for the plate so that he could dish out the fish. It was well blackened on the outside, just how Toby liked it, but perfectly cooked in the middle by some miracle or skill. 

Coming around to the grill, Jim laid down a layer of lemon circles, then the herbed filet of fish with the skin side up, with a layer of onions over it. Over top, he put a regular pot lid to catch the steam. In the meantime, Jim double checked that it was ok to make the same meal for the rest of them. 

“Surprise me, Gynt. I doubt you could replicate that recipe.” Nomura crossed her arms, setting herself up to some slapdash thing thrown together. What she had seen so far (sticking a fish directly into the fire truly was barbaric.) didn’t get her hopes too far up.

“I’m sure whatever you cook will be fantastic.” And there were two votes of no-confidence, Nomura mentally noted.

“I ain’t had fish before, so I dunno what it’ll taste like, but sure.” And three. The brute didn’t count, since he ate literally anything, so as long as it was edible, Jim was exceeding their expectations while cooking.

Reading the room, he was a little disheartened, wishing that they had a chance to try his human cooking before everything changed. And, sure, he wasn’t exactly expecting anything spectacular, what with still learning his own taste buds, but still. Mentally psyching himself up, Jim removed the lid on the fish and scraped the onions off to the hotter side of the griddle to cook through, while he flipped the filet into a clean spot, carefully transferring the grilled lemon slices to the top to keep the fish moist. Leaving the fish alone to crisp up the skin, Jim tended to the onions, tossing on a pinch of salt and pepper as he stirred them. Soon enough, he plated the fillet on a bed of grilled onions and presented it to his mother with a sprinkle of dried chive and tarragon on top. 

“It looks lovely, thank you.” Barbara gladly accepted the fork and heeded the warning to wait five minutes for it to settle before breaking into it. 

Touching the grill handles tentatively, Jim decided they were a smidge too hot and moved aside, asking Toby to flip it for him. Carefully, Jim brushed the lined surface with some oil, making the grill smoke at the borderline-too-hot temperatures. Using tongs, Jim carefully put down the hotdog, along with thick cut onions, mushrooms and bell peppers. Claire was a little apprehensive with the amount on the grill, but she was sure Jim knew what he was doing. In the meantime, Jim prepared the bun by toasting that as well. She didn’t see what kind of sauce he slathered on the bread, but the next thing she knew, he was putting some shoestring cut grilled onions on the opposite of the sauced side. She hadn’t seen him put a portion of onion aside when he was cooking Barbara’s fish, but had kept some away from the fish-onion and warm in a small mixing bowl near the fire. When the veggies and hotdog were cooked through and there was an appropriate amount of char lines on them, Jim served a selection, beautifully stacked across the plate in alternating pieces. She needn’t have worried about being given too many veggies, since the rest of them went into the largest mixing bowl Jim had. 

“Thank you.” Jim nodded, taking the bowl back toward his fish-prep area. 

“One of these days, You’ll have to try the fish.” Jim spoke through Toby. “It doesn’t taste near as ‘fishy’ when its fresh and prepared correctly.” 

“Hmm…” Claire bit into her hotdog and her eyes fluttered shut. “Maybe.” She doubted fish could ever be better than her papa’s chorizo.

While the humans (Not-trolls?) were distracted with food, Jim worked on the meal for the rest of them. All the pieces except for Aaarrrgghh’s were chunked into about one inch cubes- bones and all, and tossed on top of the veggies he hadn’t served Claire, as well as a couple of raw chunked onions. Then he took a cupful of sand for the silicates and a fistful of charcoal for the carbon and mixed it well before portioning it out for Blinky, Nomura and NotEnrique. Then he did much the same thing with Aaarrrgghh’s, but kept it in the mixing bowl. Since the plastic bag was now free of fish, he shredded it into tiny pieces using a pair of oversized shears and mixed that in as well. On the surface, it looked like a bowl of poke without rice, but he was still unsure with the taste. 

“Tobes.” Jim got his friend’s attention, tapping the pie tin that looked full of the more worthless pieces of their treasure hunt.

“Yeah, go ahead, Jimbo.”

“Thanks.” They both knew that the plastic forks wouldn’t have survived troll mouths as long as the metal ones would, but there was no doubt that they would go through all of them by the end of the night. Grabbing his own to snack on, he handed out the bowls and then sat back.

“Master Jim, where is your meal?” Blinky asked, realizing that Jim didn’t have his own bowl, nor any meal at all.

“I, uh…” Jim blushed, tapping the fork on his bottom lip before absently biting it in half. “Actually ate while I was out hunting.” More than he should have, to be honest. He wouldn't have to eat for the next few days if he had anything to do with it… and could evade Blinky’s mother henning. 

“Uh-huh.” Blinky’s eyes fell to half-mast and he looked disbelieving, but he let it go anyway, taking a bite of the meal Jim had prepared. He stopped, rolling the piece of fish around in his mouth for a minute before swallowing. It was… surprisingly good. A complex taste, and not one he encountered too often before. Then again, Trollmarket didn’t usually get too many kinds of fish on any sort of regular basis.

“It’s good.” Aaarrrgghh murmured, taking the words right out of Blinky’s mouth, as he popped another chunk into his mouth and chewed. 

Nomura shrugged. It definitely wasn’t poke, that’s for sure. But somehow, the kid had managed to combine human techniques and ingredients, and make them palatable to the troll tongue. She restrained herself though, there was no need to inflate the kid’s ego. “It’s no poke, that’s for sure.” 

Jim shrugged. “Sorry, I didn’t bring any ponzu or sesame seeds with me. And I don’t know which types of seaweed here are edible yet.” He sassed her, crossing his arms. Toby was currently chowing down, and something in the delivery would get lost through translation.

“Done!” NotEnrique held out his bowl to show it was empty. 

“Ah.” Startled, he grabbed the paper bowl that the imp had thrust his direction, fork sticking out of the corner of his mouth. “This is yours too. But if you want more, you have to ask Aaarrrgghh for a piece or two of his.”

“Got it, Blue.” NotEnrique bounded from Jim’s head, to Claire’s shoulders, and then over to Aaarrrgghh, hanging off the giant’s hand holding the bowl, trying to fish a piece out for himself.

Arrgghh grabbed the imp by the head, putting him on his arm properly and tilted the bowl upright in his hands with a finger. “One.” Aaaarrgghh stated firmly, putting a chunk the size of NotEnrique’s eyeball in it.

“Uh... “ He hadn’t realized how big the ex-general’s pieces were. “Got it. Thanks.” Taking the piece, he safely retreated to Sis’ side. 

“Thank you for the meal, sweetie.” Barbara yawned, suddenly tired as she handed over her plate. “I don’t know what it is, but I’m about ready for a nap!” She yawned again, standing up with the intention of taking a nap in the van, when she tripped and fell.

“Mom!” Jim moved to go to his mother’s side, when Toby pulled his attention.

“Uh… Jimbo… You seeing what I’m seeing?” The wind shifted and they could both feel it. A fog rolled into the bay, muffling the night sounds around them. The next thump behind them was NotEnrique falling off the log in a dead faint.

“O-oh, dear.” Blinky was the next to yawn, his six eyes fluttering shut as he slumped against Aaarrrgghh, who was flat on his stomach, his eyes half-mast.

“For the Glory of Merlin-!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to give you a heads-up, I have a Toby-Dragon-centric story that I will post in a few days!


	4. Weird Sisters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jim gets an unexpected visit down on the dock.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun little fact: Merlin's kenning as Myrddin Wylt... literally translates into Merlin the Mad, and I'm all for that.

The fog bank rolled in suddenly, not giving anyone time to prepare themselves. It came downstream like a tsunami, washing over them just as suddenly.

“-Daylight is mine to command!” Standing out on the end of the dock, Jim held Daylight at the ready, able to defend his family from whatever was coming. 

“Oh, no need for that, little one.” A voice whispered from one side.

“Look, sister, he thinks he can harm us.” A second voice chirped, coming from a different direction.

“He carries Emrys’ tainted magic!” hissed the third one.

Jim looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of  _ something _ in the sudden pea-soup fog that surrounded him. Out of the corner of his eye, the campfire was only a dim orange glow. “Show yourselves.” He demanded sternly, then faltered, “Self?” The fog carried the taint of fae magic, so there could be nearly anyone coming for him, and he was, in the end, a lowly near-powerless selkie.

Three distinct giggles met his ears. “Peace, little one.” the first voice soothed, bringing to mind his mother and movie nights wrapped in their favorite blanket. “We do not wish to fight.”

“I will defend myself if I need to.” Jim warned, “You will not touch those under my protection either.” 

“And is the one that cursed you to that half-thought form under your protection?” The hissing voice demanded straight into his ear, making him take a sidestep and swipe where he heard it by instinct.

“Your silence speaks for you.” The warm voice was behind him and he could almost feel a light hug around his shoulders. “Emrys’ has done you much harm, little one.”

“It is time to recompense for what has been done.” The chirpy one cheered, sounding very young.

“This is the proof we needed, sisters.” the angry one states.

“Yes,” the serene one agreed, “It is.” 

“Ragged flesh and broken stone” The trio chanted, “mend this body for thine soul to be borne-” Energy pulsed through him, lifting him off his feet as his armor fell away. The light came from everywhere and nowhere at once, blinding him, and he knew no more.

* * *

The world dimmed around them, fogging their mind and eye. Distantly, they could see Jim, the trollhunter, run toward the pier before he was enshrouded with fog. Then the small one stood in front of them while nobody else could move, his arms outstretched but no weapon in his hand. 

“Jimbo!” he yelled when the other was enveloped by the mist, but didn’t move from where he stood. The fog cleared enough so they could make out three- no, two- forms standing on either side of him at the end of the dock. A third- oh, there  _ were  _ three- appeared at the boy’s side, only for him to swipe at the being with a fist shrouded in flames. “Get away from us!” 

“Fierce little dragon, why are you still awake?” a- dare they say- chipper voice came from the form that was close to them. It was strange, between one blink and another, the form shifted, looking more human, then trollish and back. “As are you.” The form looked their direction with luminescent green eyes. “How pecular. You must be powerful in magic. Either way,  _ rest now. _ ” Their eyes closed and didn’t open again.

* * *

“Leave them alone!” Toby snarled, the fire creeping up his arm to consume one sleeve of his shirt. A small trail of flame connected him to the campfire, allowing him to use less of his own energy for the display. 

“Peace.” The being held up a hand. “We are not here to hurt you or your companions.”

“Then what  _ are _ you here for?” The longer Jim was separated from him, the more he worried, distracting him by splitting his attention between the one directly in front of him, and the two on either side of his other half. 

“To correct a wrong that has been done to one of our own.”

“What are you talking about?” Toby bared his teeth, the fire dancing over his hair and sliding across his torso. He didn’t think that they had encountered any fae as trollhunters. At least, none in arcadia except for “ _ Merlin _ !” Toby growled, preparing himself for the worst. If they were on  _ his  _ side, or even worse,  _ Morgana’s _ , he was prepared to burn up his own life-force to protect his family. Toby even went as far as to draw a line of fire in the sand, separating him and the mysterious fae from the unconscious trolls and humans.

“He is quite a nuisance for a half-breed, isn’t he?” She gave a nonchalant shrug, throwing Toby off balance.

“...What?” 

“Myrddin Wyllt, Emrys, Ambrosius, Merlin. Whatever name he goes by these days.” She giggled. “They were right to call him ‘the mad,’ doing what he did to your mate.” 

Toby’s shoulders dropped, though his stance remained defensive. “I was warned not to retaliate.”

The being hummed, a small smile on her face. “Whoever told you that, your mate likely, was right to say so. Just imagine what a world we would be in, if the Great Dragonlord knew that he already had one on a leash. How the tables would have been turned, and not for the better. There is winning the war by defeating the enemy king, Then there is decimating the other side.” She booped Toby’s nose with a grin, ignoring that his face was now engulfed- along with the rest of his body- in flames. 

“I do not belong to him.” The flames were growing larger, shrouding his body in an illusion of his dragon form. The trail of flame became his tail, the wall his wings.

“No, but his pet holds your leash.” 

Toby swelled up to argue, “Jim does not  _ own- _ ” A light coming from the end of the dock cut him off. He was moving before he could register doing so, running toward the shore before Jim’s body had even hit the water. “Jim!” Toby dove, his fire illusion breaking as it hit the water.

* * *

Aaarrrgghh couldn’t move when the sleep spell hit him, though it didn’t work completely as intended. The fog still beaded in his fur, though the marks underneath glowed softly. He could feel Blinkous as he settled against his side. He watched as the others fell one by one, all except Tobias and James. While one ran out to meet the enemy, the other stayed to defend, like they had been doing so their whole lives and not for the past year. He felt pride in his heart as Tobias stood tall, though his weapon was out of reach. 

He saw the fire that the child connected to slowly consume his body, disguising his human form in flames. The form that emerged was one from legends and Aaarrrgghh couldn’t wait to see when the vision would eventually be realized. As a whelp, he had been fascinated by the stories, but had been told that they had gone extinct only centuries before. ‘Gone overnight,’ his caretaker once said, ‘and not a trace left to prove they were ever there.’ And here was living proof, a child, a hatchling, playing at being an adult, just like the other two were. 

What had they gone through, what dramatic incident happened, to make the near-impossible task of shifting come so easily to the boy. Given the right push, Aaarrrgghh had no doubt he could manage another full transformation before reaching his first century. He hoped that it never came to pass. Whelps, children and hatchlings were to be protected, after all, not the ones doing the protecting. And here were three whelps, forced to be adults far to young. That thought alone was the one that made him reevaluate his vow of pacifism. 

When he dove under the water to retrieve James, Tobias’ flames extended out, burning away the last of the fog like it was never there. The trio of strangers were also gone, away from sense or scent, as if they were never there. He could no longer feel the force of the sleep spell pushing down on his shoulders, though his body still felt heavy. Still, he had carried heavier burdens before. Forcing himself up, he gently lowered Blinky to lie down before meeting Tobias and an unconscious James at the shoreline.

* * *

“C’mon Jimbo, you gotta wake up here.” Toby pulled Jim up onto shore as far as he could, rolling the half-troll onto his side and into a recovery position. “Do you know how embarrassing it would be for a selkie to die by drowning? And think of what the counsel would say. Definitely a top ten worst deaths situation there.” He tapped Jim’s cheek and rubbed the bare skin of his back under his furs. 

“Let me.” Aaarrrgghh rumbled, gently nudging aside Toby to get better access to Jim. The gentle giant gave him two solid smacks to the back, forcing the water out of Jim’s lungs and forcefully bringing the boy back to consciousness. “Good,” he soothed, rubbing Jim’s abused back before picking him up to bring closer to the fire when the boy shivered.

“God… Tobes…? What happened?” Jim didn’t move from where he was cradled in Aaarrgghh’s arms, except to hold his hand out to his mate. 

“I really don’t know, Jimbo.” Toby responded quietly, taking Jim’s hand in both of his, searching the selkie’s eyes for… something. He wasn’t quite sure what.

“Hmm… Magic.” Aaarrrgghh used his free hand to sweep Toby closer, forcing the two boys to cuddle in the circle of his arms- not that either was complaining. “Scent changed again.”

Jim was too tired to think, so he stared into the fire while Toby asked the obvious question. “Changed how?”

“More human. Smells blended together.” 

“Oh.” Toby’s brows furrowed, trying to make sense of it. Aaarrrgghh was led mostly by his nose these days, at least, now that he had come back from the dead. “Okay. Hey, Jimbo…” He was quiet as he reached up to his mate’s face. “You ok? You’re crying.” 

It took a moment or two, but Jim pulled his eyes away from the guttering fire and down to Toby’s concerned face. He squeezed the shorter briefly before going back to having his arms loosely wrapped around the other. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.” He whispered, a mixture of disbelief and awe in his voice.

“What doesn’t hurt.” 

“Everything, Tobes.” Jim looked down and touched foreheads with him. “I didn’t even realize it was hurting so much, and now the pain’s gone.” Toby closed his own eyes, pressing foreheads back, feeling tears not his own sliding down his face.

“Oh.” He whispered back, wrapping Jim up in as big of a hug as he could, not wanting to let go. “That’s good.” 

Aaarrrgghh ducked down, tucking the boys in the safe space within the circle of his arms and his chin, giving them time to gather themselves while the others awoke on their own time. 

“...Tobes…?” Jim hummed, his hand absently tracing around Toby’s back as he curled up further around the shorter.

“Hmm?” Toby acknowledged absently, not really thinking much at all beyond enjoying the cuddles.

“...What happened to your shirt?” 

“...” Toby froze for a moment, torn between embarrassment and, well, a different breed of embarrassment. “I kinda… burned it. By accident. When that trio showed up and made everyone else pass out.”

“Mmm.” Jim nodded, tracing Toby’s spine, circling slightly more prominent than human-normal spinal bumps. “You didn’t really like that shirt much anymore anyway. And you don’t have to hide anything now if you don’t want to either.” Jim traced around one particularly prominent bump between his shoulder blades. “I think you’re growing in spinal ridges.” They were common, from what they had read in those old books, but not every dragon species had them. Right now, they were little more than bumps, but eventually they would grow into something like a row of protective spines to match the two growing on the back edge of his jaw. Toby was lucky though, that they were hidden by his baby fat and shirts, for now. The only reason Jim could pick them up at all was because Toby was currently completely covered by his protective scales, only the wetsuit had been left unscathed. 

“Probably.” All he knew, was that there were some days that his back was just too sore to lay directly on it. But that wasn’t new news, it had been that way off-and-on for a couple years now. 

What had Jim so fascinated though, was that he could now  _ feel _ the difference. He hadn’t brought it up, but ever since his transformation, his tactile sense had been dulled to almost nonexistence. He just assumed that was how a troll’s sense of touch was, what with their stony skin. No, he could feel so much now. He could feel every scale ridge. Experimentally, Jim touched Aaarrrgghh’s arm, stroking up and down it and bringing the elder’s attention to them with an enquiring noise.

“I can feel things again.” Jim whispered in awe, “I was so numb. I thought it was all normal.” Picking up a pinch of sand, he rolled it around in his fingers. Closing his eyes, he could feel the difference between minerals and shards of shell or wood. Absently, he brought his hand up to lick the sand off his fingers and his eyes widened. He had tried sand before but… “Oh.” The tears that hadn’t really stopped, just flowed harder. “I… I’m just… it’s too much.”

“Ok, I get it.” Toby murmured, just holding tighter as Jim pulled his furs around and just… imploded into his selkie form. These were senses that he knew. This is a body that hadn’t been slowly betraying him since he defeated Gunmar. This, he could understand. “You can stay like that as long as you need to.” 

“Fluffy.” Aaarrrgghh cooed, finally getting a close-up look at the whelp-pup. 

“Yeah he is. You can pet him if you want. Jimbo doesn’t mind.” Aaarrrgghh did so, running a single finger from the top of his horned head, down to his tail, Jim arching into the touch the entire time. He looked like one of those furry petting worm toy things, Toby mused. Especially since by being in such close to space-heater Toby, his fur had dried out completely. 

“Ugh.” A deep groan alerted the trio that the others were starting to wake up. “What… happened?”

“Claire-bear, you’re awake!” Toby chirped, turning as far as he could to look behind his shoulder at the girl. “Come cuddle a sulky selkie with me!” Toby got a bite to the arm for that, but no other protest. 

“...Toby…?” Claire made her way over to Aaarrrgghh, where she could see Toby more clearly. “What happened to you?” She accepted his hand, carefully crawling into the nest of Aaarrrgghh’s arms and laid down on Jim’s other side, facing her boys. Absently, she noted that Jim rolled slightly so that he was pressed into Claire, pawing at Toby to come closer as well, which made Aaarrrgghh tighten his hands the slightest as well, making the whole thing more cozy. 

“Well…” Toby absently scratched at a small pearlescent scale on his cheek, absently peeling it off and tossing it into the sand behind him when it came loose. She couldn’t tell if it was his, or a stray fishscale from earlier. “Since the Wyrd Sisters cast that sleeping spell that whammied everyone, I was left to defend you guys since Jimbo ran ahead to try to attack them.” The teeth on his arm tightened slightly at the unappreciated jab, which Toby completely ignored. “I tried to scare them off the best way I could, by using my fire magic, and, well, Ta-dah! Here I am in all my half-dragon scaly glory.”

“Why are you still scaled though? You changed back pretty quickly when you stuck your hand in the fire earlier.”

“Forced change.” Aaarrrgghh answered before Toby could. “Not good.”

“Like wingman said. I can change back, but it takes a lot of energy, especially with how far I shifted trying to scare them off. I’m going to let them fade naturally this time, so I don’t hurt myself.” 

“Oh. Okay.” Claire couldn’t resist it any longer, she reached out and stroked Toby’s face. It was still as soft as ever, but now it had the smooth feel, almost like snakeskin. “That feels so weird.” She said with a grin, so Toby took it as a positive. As much as he currently vaguely looked trollish in coloring, Toby’s scales spoke of something completely different. The red and yellow of his palms extended through all the soft parts of his skin, including his inner arms, front of his torso, neck and face, the tougher skin was a dark red/black so that he could blend in with the shadows if he was careful with it. His eyes though, she would forever be able to point out, just like Jim’s ocean-ice blue. They were such a vivid green that they were nearly glowing, especially now that they had more of a slit to them than the normal human roundness. 

“What’s this?” She asked, picking up a pendant that Toby had hanging around his neck, it was a delicate silver cage in the shape of a ball, holding what looked like the remains of a powdery ball of… something.

“That’s… was… a protective charm to help me control my fire. Now it’s been carbonized. Sorry Jimbo.” The seal looked up and nosed at the cage for a moment before sitting up completely and partially pulling off his furs. The shift was so seamless, that Claire’s mind tried to tell her that he was humanoid this whole time. There was no fancy flashes of light, or surges of magic. He was just a seal one moment, and humanoid the next. 

“I found an oyster farm a couple of miles away from here.” Jim’s voice was husky and low, mostly from his crying earlier. He held his furs so that they covered most of his body in a pool of fabric, only his human face and the top of his torso showing.

“Jim, you…!” Toby reached out and touched Jim’s face, finally realizing what was so different. “You’re human.” The statement made Aaarrrgghh startle and look down, looking at the boy closely, and sniffing him even closer.

“Still troll Jim.” He murmured, confusion in his eyes.

“I…” Jim’s eyes fluttered closed as he took stock of his body. “Think that they made it so when I’m wearing my skin, I can be human.” He revealed his hand that was trollish before, but now had all five fingers again.

“Or mostly human, at least.” Toby corrected, eyeing Jim’s horns. “I think those are just going to be your  _ tell _ no matter what form you’re in.” Reaching up and groping his horns, Jim nodded reluctantly. 

“So. Oyster farm. Did you finish sorting out your treasure?” As long as he had something to focus on, he wouldn’t break down. That was for another night and the privacy of his den. Not… here. Where the Weird Sisters had proven just how vulnerable he was. 

“Jim, no.” Toby sighed with an air of resignation. “You know that’s not… Just no.”

“Jim yes.” he grinned, bumping noses with Toby since he could see his friend’s lack of resolve. “Do you have anything shiny that would do for payment?”

Heaving a huge sigh, Toby reluctantly nodded and stood up, crawling out of Aaarrrgghh’s nest. “Yeah, just gimme a minute.” 

“Yay, thank you!”  _ I love you  _ went unsaid, but Toby waved off the thanks anyway. “Claire~” She gave Jim the side-eye, both curious and wary what would come out of the selkie’s mouth next. “You have really pretty handwriting. Do you think you can write a note for me?”

“Uh… sure?” She… was confused. What did Toby’s treasure and a note have to do with an oyster farm?

“Great!” Jim chirped, making his way out of the nest as well, leaving Claire and Aaarrrgghh to exchange confused looks. He opened his arms up, making it easier for her to leave as well if she wanted to. A moment later, Jim came back with a fine-tipped marker, a piece of thick paper, and a mason jar. 

“Here, this should do it.” Toby came back as well with the diamond ring and a pair of diamond earrings. Jim took one look and snorted in agreement. For their usefulness, diamonds were a junk rock, but their inflated sense of worth made them a more than fair trade. 

“Here, can you write down ‘Dear sir/madame, thank you for the oysters, I hope that this will be an adequate payment for them. Sincerely, your friendly neighborhood selkie.” 

“What?” Claire giggled, though still using her best handwriting to copy down what Jim had said. 

“It’s not like they would believe that a mythical creature took them anyway.” Toby shrugged. “At least we’re trying to pay them, and not just stealing them.”

“You guys are utterly ridiculous.” She was still smirking through her admonishment, shaking her head. Making sure that the note was dry, she capped the marker and handed both to Jim, who promptly ripped the note from the rest of the paper and rolled it up, sticking it into the jar along with the diamond jewelry and a couple rocks to weigh the jar down. 

“Yep.” Jim didn’t even bother denying it. “I’ll be back in a while.” He snagged Toby’s treasure bag and put the jar in it, putting the handles between his teeth before walking out into the surf. He then walked back out of the surf and moved Barbara to the beach blanket, making sure she was comfortable for her nap before taking a flying leap off of the dock. 

“So… Why oysters?” 

“Oysters make pearls.” Toby stated baldly.

“O...kay?”

Toby grabbed up the pendent and showed Claire how it opened, pouring the powdery white ball into the palm of his hand. “This is where geomancy and ocean magic kinda meet.” He rolled the ball around his palm, flakes of white sloughing off. “Jim uses pearls in a lot of his more powerful ocean magic spells to anchor them, including this one. It’s supposed to help me keep a level head and control my fire magic. But it can only hold out for so long before something like this happens and I need a new one.” To prove his point, he took the carbonized pearl and just… squished it between his fingers. 

* * *

Some time later, another groan from the campfire drew Claire and Toby from their conversation, just cuddling and catching up on what they had missed in person. “Whose smart idea was it to bring tequila again? Stricklander, I’m going to kill you. I swear I saw the fat one-” Nomura looked around, holding the side of her head, only to see two bemused sets of eyes and one concerned. “...It wasn’t a hallucination.” Glowing slitted green eyes met glowing slitted green eyes and Nomura groaned, wanting to go back to sleep.

“What. The fuck. Happened.” She enunciated carefully through her migraine.

“You got a double-dose of sleep spell, Ms. Nomura. I’m surprised you’re up.”

“Then why are you?”

“Jimbo can explain it better.” Nomura raised an eyebrow at that, “But basically fairy magic affects non-magic-users the worst, and then gets less effective the more magic in the blood there is. I’m pretty much full magic, so is Jim. Then Claire was only out for like ten minutes, probably because of Morgana and forcing her latent magic to the surface  _ pretty  _ often. Then there’s you, big guy. Why  _ are  _ you up?”

Aaarrrgghh shrugged, pointing to some of his carvings. “Bindrunes. Strength. Others.”

“Aahhh, yeah, that’d do it, if they’re constantly activated. Those would have fought off the spell pretty hard.” Toby nodded in agreement, turning back to Nomura. “You must practice a lot of magic as well, since NotEnrique isn't up yet, so it’s not your changeling magic’s strength. Blinky’s not up either, and Dr. L’s probably out for the count. We’ll probably have to get an energy shot or two into her before she can drive us back north.” Nomura grunted at that. It was times like this, that she wished that she could still shift into her human form.

“Gods, I can use some coffee.” Nomura muttered, pulling herself up to stare into the fire. 

“Here, here.” Claire agreed. She was awake, but a good well-brewed cup would hit the spot perfectly. 

A sharp whistle from the dock alerted them that Jim had returned bearing oysters. “Come on, have you ever shucked oysters before?”

“No… I don’t think I have?” Claire let Toby pull her up with a surprising amount of strength in his short body. Training with his gravity hammer really did pay off.

“Cool, you want to learn?” 

“Um… I think I’ll just watch for now.” 

“Ok.” Toby hadn’t let go of her hand as they walked down the dock to meet up with Jim. The bag was near-bursting with oysters, some the size of her fist. “Jeez, put on some pants, Jimbo. There is a  _ lady  _ present.” Toby threw a familiar pair of blue shorts at Jim’s head and the taller ducked back into the water briefly to put them on.

“H-he…” A blush bloomed across Claire’s face and down her neck, realizing that Jim had been walking around the beach and dock, absolutely buck naked beneath his fur coat. 

“Yep. Full-time boyfriend, part time nudist.” Toby harked back to things that Merlin was known to say about Jim’s ‘half-troll’ status. “Dr. L and I are used to it, especially since Jimbo here still covers up with his furs, but accidents  _ are  _ known to happen. Not that you’d complain, would you?” Toby waggled his brow and ducked to avoid getting beaned by a flying oyster. He was gotten by a punch to the arm by Claire though. “Ugh, fine, fine.” retrieving the oyster, he presented it to Jim and sat down. 

Jim, in response, made a pinching motion with his fingers, then jiggled his hand up and down, making Toby smack his forehead and stand right back up. “Right, the baggies. I’ll be right back.” And back to that netted bucket of all-holding he went, grabbing a handful of snack bags and the pie tins that had been holding the boat findings. He could always sort those out again later anyway.

“...I guess I’m not much of a seafood person, Jim.” Claire shrugged pushing away the hand that was holding a shucked oyster he was offering her.

“Ok.” He couldn’t keep all the disappointment from his voice, but accepted it anyway. “What’d I deserve to have  _ two _ anti-shellfish people in my life.”

“I have to agree with Claire there, Jimbo. They’re gross.” Jim looked down at the oyster in his hand and sighed. “You sure you don’t want to try one, Claire?” 

“It looks slimy.”

“That it does.  _ And _ they’re not kosher.” Rolling his eyes with a sigh, Jim put down the halved oyster and filled one of the pie tins with water, lining up all three within easy access. 

“I guess more for me then.” he fished around to check for the pearl. Finding one, he dropped it into the water-filled tin before putting the oyster meat in the second, and the shell halves by the third. “Unless Mom’s up.”

“Nah, man, Your mom’s out for the count.” Jim grunted, moving on to the next oyster while Toby used his pocket knife to scrape off stray bits from the outside of the shell. “Here, you can polish the pearls and stick them in a bag. If Jim finds any twins or multiples, stick them in their own bag so that we can keep them together.” Toby handed over his handkerchief so that she wasn’t just sitting there and watching the two boys work. They looked like this was a frequent thing, with how quickly Jim broke into the shells with his claw and how Toby knew exactly how to clean seaweed from the outside and stray oyster guts from the inside. 

“Why are you keeping the shells?”

“For the Nacre.” “Mother-of-pearl.” the boys spoke at the same time, Toby showing off the iridescent sheen that was on the inside.

“It has its own uses.” Jim shrugged, settling into his own sense of calm, working his way through the oysters. Most of the ones he had snagged had pearls in them, but every once in a while there was a dud. Either the pearl had fused with the shell, or the oyster had managed to eject the irritant completely. The oyster farm was actually more focused on meat production, but it had the occasional naturally-occuring pearl. He hadn’t taken all of them, but a good portion, leaving the note and diamonds behind. Likely, the farmers wouldn’t notice what they were missing, since he only took one or two per tray. 

“Oh, this one’s pretty.” Claire cooed, making the boys look over. 

“If you like it, put it in another baggie and keep it with you. Same if any of the shells call you.” 

Jim nodded in agreement, humming a low song as he worked. “Depending on how many call to you, I might be able to do something with them.” He offered, looking at the pearls in the water, swishing them this way and that as he looked through them. Most of them were white or cream colored, but every once in a while there was a different color like the lavender one Claire had snatched up. He was looking for a gold or chocolate pearl ideally, but would settle for a rich cream if he had to- or if another one called him to be used. 

“So what are you going to do with so many pearls?” Claire asked, picking up the next one to polish. 

“The ones I won’t use whole, I usually powder and use that way. They’ll all be used eventually.”

“You’re not going to sell them?” 

“ _ That _ would be stealing.” Jim shook his head. Various stones that trolls had scrapped or otherwise deemed trash, Jim had started collecting to have Toby go through. Those that Toby approved, he would either sell raw or cut for human beauty standards. It amused him sometimes, what a big difference there was between what humans and trolls considered valuable. The difference between selling humans troll’s scrap stones, and selling humans pearls he had taken from a human oyster farm was night and day. 

“Ah, twins!” He exclaimed in surprise, finding the second one that had hidden itself after he had dumped the meat out. 

“Here, I’ll take them.” Toby’s hands were currently empty, so he washed the two of them in the water without letting them fall in with the others, and slipped them into an empty baggie, setting it off to the side. “Think we’ll get more, or just the one set?” 

“Dunno. I hope so, but I don’t think so.” Jim shook his head, looking into the near-empty bag. Pulling the last few to himself, he reached over and rinsed the bag out in the water, then passed it over to Toby, who started packing the cleaned shells back into it. In the quiet, he began to hum again, growing louder as nobody said anything.

“...That’s a really pretty song, is it a lullaby?”

“Hmm?” It took a moment, but Jim pulled his attention back to the present and Claire’s question. Nodding his head, he started to sing out loud. “...Idir cósta, idir cloch/ Idir brí is idir muir/ Tá mé i dtiúin…”

“...Between the stones, between the storm/ Between belief, between the sea/ I am in tune…” Toby sang the translation, shadowing Jim’s words. He was no rockstar, but he was good enough to supplement Jim’s words. When Jim finished, he started humming through the song again, continuing to shuck the oysters. “We really need to watch Song of the Sea, and maybe Secret of Kells if you like the animation style. It has a lot of good background about selkie and irish legends in general… though the seelie in it are hilarious.” 

Jim nodded in agreement, snorting. He finished the shucking and moved on to helping Toby clean the shells. Thankfully, that that was finished quickly as well and Jim took a moment to clean up by dumping the oyster meat into a pair of zippered baggies and shoving them deep into the ice of the cooler for the morning. If nothing else, he could make his mom a batch of oyster stew before she left. 

“Can I see them?” Jim asked, holding his hands out for the baggie holding the majority of the pearls.

“Sure.” Claire handed them over and watched as Jim dumped them back into the tin, now free of water, and started pushing them this way and that with his finger, looking for something only he could see.

After a few minutes, Jim let loose a frustrated groan and gestured the tin towards Toby. “Pick one. None of them are quite right this time, so we’ll have to make do.” 

“You sure, Jimbo?” Toby asked, his hand hovering over the tin.

“Yeah. You know what to do. If any of them call to you, tell me.” 

Toby nodded. “Yeah, got it.” Taking a breath to steady himself, Toby’s eyes slid to half mast as he focused on what his magic was telling him and not his eyes. Humming in consternation, after a minute of just stirring the pearls, Toby finally picked a bright white one on the smallish side and handed it over. “Well, it’s not outright  _ rejecting _ me like a lot of the others, so it’ll have to do.”

Jim grunted, nodding in agreement as he inspected the tiny thing. Honestly, it looked fake, like a plastic pearl found in a beader’s spare parts. Concentrating a bit and pushing an experimental tendril of magic in it, he was surprised when it held the charge. “Give me a minute, and then I’ll be able to put it in.”

“Got it.” Toby nodded, but then remembered something. “I’ll be right back, I need to get something from my bag.” Leaning forward, Toby bonked his forehead with Jim’s far-from-soft one. “If we’re going to do this, we might as well do the whole thing, right? Since we didn’t get to do it over the summer.” 

Jim blinked but then nodded slowly and shyly. “If you wish to.” 

“You know I do.” Toby grinned, tilting his head, “I’ll be right back.” 

“What is Toby talking about?” Claire asked, bemused about the exchange but still curious as she watched Toby bolt down the dock, nearly slipping with a squawk when a stray wave made the whole thing buck, but easily caught himself on the closest pylon before continuing on. 

“It’s a silly little tradition that we’ve been doing ever since Mom and I started bringing Tobes along on our beach trips.”

“It’s not silly if it’s important to both of you.” Claire objected softly.

Jim studied his girlfriend closely, deciding exactly what to tell her. To tell her what he and Tobes really meant to each other. “Have you noticed that Toby’s the only one that has been allowed to touch my pelt?”

“Yeah… what does that have to do with anything? You’re picky with a part of yourself, and that’s fine. I don’t like people touching my hair unless I tell them they can.”

“It’s… not quite the same thing.” Jim quirked up one side of his mouth in a half-smile, “but I guess it has the same sentiment. I… we… Tobes  _ owns _ my pelt.”

“What does that mean, how can he own it when it’s… right… there…” Claire slowed down as she remembered exactly what had been said… had it been just last night? ‘ _ Whoever owns a selkie skin, owns the selkie...but sometimes the skins are given willingly to a human that catches their attention. _ ’ “But you- I- What about Darci? If you two are together then-” Claire cut herself off and stood up, attempting to make her way back up the dock, but Toby was there, blocking her path with a serious expression. “Get out of the way, Toby.”

“No. You need to listen to us first. Jimbo loves you, and nothing will ever change that. And I love Darci, but this is complicated. And I’m starting to love you too.” Claire gasped and Toby cringed, not meaning to say that out loud. At least, not at this point in time. “Just, please, listen to us first. And if you need to, you can come back with Dr. L and I when we go home.” 

Biting off a screaming retort, Claire gave a nod and allowed herself to be herded back to where Jim hadn’t moved beyond studying the pearl in his hand, rolling it between his fingers. “Sit with Jim, please.” Toby asked when she went to lean against the pylon at the end of the dock. “I -we- don’t want you to miss anything by accident.” Jim nodded in agreement, opening his arms to welcome her stiff form onto his lap.

“I love you.” Jim whispered as loudly as his tight throat would allow, kissing Claire’s tense shoulder after. He would rather speak with his hands in this situation, but he knew Claire wouldn’t take them as his own words if Toby translated them for her. “Very much. You are my moon and stars, my sense in insanity, my brains when I’ve left them behind. You are what reminds me that I’m still  _ human. _ ” Claire snorted at that, crossing her arms but let them talk. Taking a breath and trying to make himself heard better, Jim managed to speak a bit louder. “Tobes and I have known each other since we were five, but we’ve technically been married since we were eight. That’s when I gave him my coat. We talked it out for a long time when I heard your calling. I didn’t even talk to you until I got Tobes permission.”

“I’m a dragon. We’re known to be jealous and possessive of our treasures, and Jimbo here is my crowning jewel.” Toby continued. “That’s why I gave you such a hard time in the beginning. I didn’t want you to use Jimbo and then throw him away and break his heart, and that’s what it seemed like you were doing when you first found out about Enrique. But you’ve stuck with him, with us, even when you no longer had to be involved. You got your brother back, why did you stick around? But you did, and that’s what changed my mind.”

“We talked- a lot- about you, and us, and the three of us. About what could happen, and what we hoped would. You are now part of my treasure hoard, whether you decide to stay with Jimbo or not. You are one of my precious people.”

“But what about Darci?” 

Toby didn’t cringe like a cheating boyfriend like she expected, but gave an open smile. “Darci knows that I belong to Jim just as much as I own Jim, just nothing about the supernatural aspect of it. She likes to call what we have an open relationship, and I’m fine with that. I still love Darci, but when she finds someone she wants to move on with, I will be happy to let her move on without her feeling guilty about leaving me behind. We have an agreement that our relationship is a fun one with no long-term obligations in sight. At least with me, she can tell guys that she’s not interested in that she’s unavailable.” 

It… made sense. She wasn’t using Toby, that much was obvious from what she had heard on both sides of the conversation. They loved each other, but weren’t really  _ in love _ with each other. “I… okay. Yeah. As long as Darci knows. I’m going to have to talk to her about it, though.”

“I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Toby nodded, scooting close enough that all their legs were touching. “...Are you okay now?”

Drawing in a shuddering breath, Claire shook her head. “I will be, but not- not right now. You two lied to me.”

“...By omission, yes.” Jim mumbled into her shoulder, nodding slightly. “I’m sorry Mo Ghra.”

“What does that mean?” Claire asked, having heard it a few times on the road, and then again in the song they had sung earlier. 

“My love.” 

“Ah.” Claire blinked, her eyes going misty for a moment. “So what… is this then?” She gestured between the three of them.

“Whatever you want it to be.” Jim responded, his arms loosely wrapped around her waist, not restraining her unless she tried to bolt off mid-conversation before she got all the facts. “Tobes and I know what we are to each other, and you and I know what we are… I hope. It’s just how you want to see the three of us, whether as a trio, or separate relationships together.” Claire nodded, liking that she had a choice, and even one to walk away if it became too much.

“What is your relationship together, anyway?” Claire asked the first thing that popped into her head. She had thought they were best friends, near-brothers, but now she wasn’t quite sure.

“Complicated.” Jim snorted in agreement. It turns out that Toby was going to do most of the talking anyway, seeing as he could both see Claire’s face and had more overall experience and understanding with relationships in the first place. “Jimbo here likes to take care of people, so I let him take care of me. And I’m possessive, so he lets me own him and mark him as mine.”

“Marked?” 

“Yeah. Jimbo, turn around and let down your furs a skoch so that Claire can see your back.” Jim did so, letting go of Claire and dropping his furs to pool around his waist and elbows before turning and presenting his back to them. While the apex was hidden by his fur scruff, there were a trio of lines burned into his skin, going from both elbows and the small of his spine, up to meet in a point at the base of his skull. It was awkward, but Toby lined up his splayed hand with the marks. “It’s the outline of my wing. When Jim gave me his fur, I marked him as mine.” Patting Jim’s shoulder, Toby sat back down. “You can turn back around now.”

“The mark’s gotten bigger.” Jim added when he turned around and pulled Claire back into his lap. “Because Tobes’ dragon form has gotten bigger.” Toby nodded, a proud grin on his face. 

“We have no clue how big I’ll be, but at least I’m not the size of a cat any more.”

“You were an adorable scaly kitty.” 

“Shut up, sea puppy.” Toby retorted with a laugh, making Claire give a small giggle in response. 

“Ok, so I understand Jim wanting to take care of you, and I kinda understand you being possessive of him, but what are you two?” 

Jim and Toby stared at each other, exchanging half-formed signs and helpless shrugs before one gave in. “That would have to be something to define later, if you really want there to be a word for it. Just ‘being’ is enough for us.”

It wasn’t what she wanted, but it would have to do, for now. Claire nodded. “So… what was this ‘silly little tradition’, anyway?”

Toby grinned and held up something in red for Claire to see. “We exchange commitment tokens when we’re at the beach, to celebrate our anniversary, usually during Jimbo’s summer swim.”

“I recast Tobes’ protection charm on a pearl.” Jim spoke up, holding up the forgotten pearl.

“And I tie a kabbalah red string around Jimbo’s wrist.” Toby presented the red bracelet for Claire to inspect. “It’s a good luck charm against the evil eye.” Now that she was looking closer, she saw that it was a row of Toby’s overlapping scales, all tied onto a single red string. 

“It’s beautiful.” She looked, but didn’t touch, just in case. She had learned the hard way not to touch things that weren’t yours, lest be cursed (or cursed at). “Can I watch?”

Both boys blinked before nodding in agreement. Adjusting themselves, Claire ended up cross-legged between Jim’s legs, touching knees with a cross-legged Toby. Holding his palm out between both in front of him, the pearl rested gently in the middle before he covered it up with his other hand. “ **Cosaint ó dhochar, na tinte a sciúradh, sciath ó uisce** . Protect from harm, quell the fires, shield from water.” It took a moment, but the pearl glowed the blue that Claire had taken to associate with Daylight’s magic. “With this charm, I promise to take care of you. Protect you, your heart, your body and your mind.” Getting a nod, Jim reached over and easily popped the little wire cage open, inserting the pearl, then snapping the cage back together again. Briefly, the blue glow from the pearl spread to encompass Toby’s body before sinking into his skin.

Next, Jim held out his left wrist so that Toby could tie the bracelet snugly around it. He tied the string’s knots seven times before bending over it close enough that he was practically kissing Jim’s wrist before reciting a prayer. “ **Ben Porat…** ” (Out of respect for the Jewish people and the Hebrew nation, I will not repost a real prayer in its complete form) “You are mine.” Toby stated simply, locking eyes with Jim.

“I am yours.” Jim responded, maintaining eye contact as Toby finally kissed his wrist and pulled away.

Even being in the middle, Claire felt like she was an intruder in a very intimate moment between the two. Still, it gave her the same feeling that she had always had, sitting between them. She felt the love and open affection between them that had always been there, but now she felt like she  _ knew _ them just that little bit more. “That was beautiful.” Claire murmured, leaning back against Jim’s chest. “I’m a little jealous now.” 

The boys exchanged looks before Jim bent down and claimed one cheek, while Toby rocked up to his knees to reach her other one. “You are ours-” One murmured, kissing her cheek. “-For as long as you’ll have us.” said the other, mirroring the action on the other. Only Jim would claim her lips at this point in their relationship, but they had a long time to learn to fit together . 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I borrowed the Weird Sisters from Gargoyles. Those three will definitely show up again in a future fic, at least in the background. 
> 
> I am far from anti troll!Jim... but I do worry about the potion's long-term effects on his body. I believe that Merlin shaped him for that battle, not caring whether he actually survived to see the end of it. When you make a war machine, you don't put in padded seats, air conditioning or good suspension if it slows the vehicle down. 
> 
> I _thought_ I had two more chapters to go after this, but its looking like only one more instead (and that's pushing it). But don't worry, the story is far from over. I have at least 6 more stories in this series planned out, and I hope you come along for the ride! With NaNoWriMo 2019 nearly over, I may slow down a bit, but I do want to get these all out. Between several false starts over the years, I think I may be finally getting back into the habit of writing again. I can sincerely say I've missed it the past 5 years.


	5. Human

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire gets some thinking done, Jim finds out exactly what the Weird sisters did.

“Hey Mom, it’s time to wake up.” Jim knelt on the beach blanket besides Barbara, shaking her shoulder slightly. Predawn was lighting the sky and they needed to get going. He hated having to wake her up, since she never seemed to get enough sleep, but she was the only one that currently was allowed to drive. Claire or Toby technically could, but if they were caught, they would all be in trouble. 

“Mmm… Jim?” Barbara rolled over, staring up at the fuzzy blue image of her son. “What… time is it?”

“Early.” Jim shrugged apologetically, but pulled Barbara up into a sitting position anyway, handing over her glasses. “We need to get going soon if we want to beat the dawn light.”

Blinking, she eventually nodded. “Right, we’re on the beach. Did you have a fun time, honey?” 

“Yeah, I did.” Jim grinned, keeping one hand on Barbara’s elbow as she stood up and stretched. Everything else (nearly) had been put away, so it looked like they were just waiting on her. 

“Sorry I wasn’t able to stay up all night. I guess work and the babies caught up with me.” 

“It’s fine, Mom. You needed the sleep and everyone else kept me occupied in the meantime.” What he didn’t mention was that NotEnrique was still asleep and already tucked into the van, on top of the chest. Blinky had only woken up an hour beforehand and was still a little groggy himself, leaning against Aaarrrgghh while he tried to dispel the rest of the sleep spell. The trio had spent the past couple of hours talking and just being together as the tide shifted and rocked the deck. 

When Blinky had woken up is when they started to break camp, scattering the remaining driftwood and putting out the fire, tossing the charred rocks back into the road. Toby’s display had apparently created some natural charred glass, which Aaarrrgghh gladly ate instead of Toby throwing it into the water to get rid of it. The large troll even returned the logs to where he had found them several hours prior. 

“I’m…” Barbara yawned widely, ending in a cute squeak, “Going to need some coffee if I’m going to drive very far.”

“I think there was a gas station a couple miles up the road, Dr. L. They probably have at least something at this time in the morning.”

“That would be a blessing, Toby.” Barbara gave the boy a half hug and kissed the crown of his head. “Let's hope you’re right.” 

When Toby made to sit up front with Claire, she stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “Hey, can you sit in back with Jim this time?”

“...You sure?” Toby asked, searching Claire’s somewhat closed off expression.

“Yeah, I… want to talk to Barbara about some things. And besides, it gives you some more cuddle time with Jim before you go back to Arcadia.”

“...That  _ is _ true.” He mused, deciding to take her excuse at face value. “Ok. Hey, Jimbo, a little help here?” Toby scooted around the back side of the van, holding his hand up. “Room for one more?” 

“Of course.” Jim grinned, hauling Toby up by his wrists easily. “You didn’t want to sit up front again?”

“Girl talk.” Toby wrinkled his nose. “Plus, I’m still a little on the ‘Lizardman from the Lost Lagoon’ side of things.” Most of his scales had retreated to the point that they could be hidden beneath his normal clothes, but that wasn’t the point. As Aaarrrgghh got settled, he pulled Jim into the Krubera’s arms and sat in his lap, leaning into the crux between their chests.

“Ah, ok.” Jim chuckled, despite putting his normal pants back on, he was still wearing his furs for as long as he could, but this time they were full-sized and perfect to be used as a blanket. “I see what you really wanted to do.”

“Guilty as charged, sir.” Toby saluted, letting Jim wrap the both of them up securely. This was how they usually traveled to and from the beach, both wrapped up in his furs in the back seat of Barbara’s car. Jim smiled, imagining the day where he would be comfortable wrapping Claire up the same way. But in the meantime, this was good too. He only had a limited time left before he had to lock himself back into the trunk to hide himself from Merlin, and he wanted to make the best of that remaining time. Plus, this way, they were able to disguise the scent of Toby’s dragon magic by covering him in Merlin-tainted selkie magic, hopefully enough that Merlin wouldn’t be able to tell.

* * *

The van started and rumbled down the dirt road, jostling them all around. In her fatigue, Barbara had chosen speed over care in her quest at getting to coffee sooner… and then to a bed. Hopefully. 

“So… is there a reason why you banished Toby to the back?” Barbara asked once they got to the main road and didn’t have as much of a chance of biting off her own tongue by accident. “Or did you just want the bench seat to yourself?” She looked over at the girl, whose head was settled gently against the door window.

“Toby owns Jim.” was the simple statement that explained everything.

“Ah.” Barbara nodded, “And you don’t know where you sit between them?”

“...No.”

She looked at the girl out of the corner of her eye, sympathy all over her expression. “You know they both love you very much.”

“I know.” 

“Then what’s bothering you?”

“They said that everything was up to me. How I wanted to define our relationship. Relationships?” 

“It’s a lot to take in. How do you define your relationship with the boys then, if you let me ask.”

“I love Jim.” Was Claire’s immediate response, switching between watching the wildlife pass out the window, to Jim’s Mother’s reflection in it. “And Toby’s… a much closer friend than I ever thought he’d be.”

Barbara nodded, letting Claire continue on her own time.

“And now I find out that they’re literally attached to the hip, and not in a best friend forever kind of way. Though they have that going on too.”

“Their relationship is a complicated one, even for me to figure out sometimes.” Barbara agreed. “I just learned a long time ago, that where one goes, the other will inevitably follow. That’s why it was so strange when Jim asked Toby to stay behind. I’m just glad to see that their relationship was as strong as ever when we came over.” Barbara sighed, deciding to confess some of her own fears. “I was worried that Jim was going to reject Toby when we arrived.”

“No. Jim would never do that.” Claire shook her head, openly looking at Barbara now. “When Toby came into the nest, that was the most reactive Jim had been for a couple of days. It actually kind of scared me.”

“That you’re not good enough?” Barbara finished the thought. “You are, Claire. You just have to give it time. You and Jim, your relationship is still new, and you’ve had so many other things to think about in the meanwhile. You, neither of you, have actually had any time so sit down and be a normal couple. There’s bound to be doubts, going about things that way. If anything, you both have moved very quickly past the first stages of dating and now you’re trying to catch up. Have you two even gone on a real date yet?” 

Claire cringed. “One, officially. And it didn’t end that great, from what I was told.”

Barbara raised a brow. “‘From what you were told’? That’s a loaded statement, do you want to tell me what happened?”

“Well…”

Barbara pulled into the gas station and shut off the engine. “How about after some coffee? Do you want to come in or me to grab something for you?”

“I’ll come in with you.” Claire agreed with the repreve gratefully, watching Barbara slip around to the back and push up the door a couple of inches. 

“Zelda, Boys, anything while I’m getting coffee?”

“Coffee.” Nomura demanded immediately. “Black as-”

“Your soul and stirred with a chocolate bar. I know. Boys?” Barbara continued, looking toward the front and seeing a series of astonished and confused eyes. “What? Zelda and I used to get coffee after Krav Maga. I just didn’t know she was actually a troll until after. Now. Coffee or nothing.”

“Can I have a breakfast burrito?” Toby piped up first. “Or a cheese danish if not?”

“Of course. Jim, Aaarrrgghh, Mr. Blinky?” Jim and Aaarrrgghh waved off her offer, but Blinky, in all his enthusiasm for human things, asked if he could get something with whipped cream on top. Shaking her head in amusement, Barbara promised to see what she could do. 

Within a few minutes, Barbara had her large coffee in hand, and they were back on the road. She had left the back of the van with Nomura clutching her own large coffee like a man dying of thirst in the desert and Blinky with a faux pumpkin spice latte straight from the machine. Barbara would never touch the thing herself, since it had enough sugar in it to kill a horse. Toby got a two-pack of cheese danishes and she passed over a small cup of hot chocolate to Jim, because she could still treat her son to it. There was even a pile of dollar VHS by the door, so those had gone to Aaarrrgghh to snack on. 

“So…” Barbara took a sip of her coffee and hummed. “Your date?”

Taking a bite of her own doughnut to delay the inevitable, Claire took her time to respond. “It turned out that Morgana had been possessing me for a couple of weeks by then. Halfway through dinner, I blacked out and don’t remember anything until I woke up in the shadow realm, the boys trying to rescue me from my own mind. I woke up from  _ that _ , with Blinky and Strickler pointing a creeper’s sun dagger at my face.”

“...I really don’t think anything could go worse for a date between you two, honest.” Barbara mused, mentally noting to ask one of the boys for the rest of  _ that  _ story some other time. “You can only go up from there. It’s a low bar to cross, you have to admit.” 

Put that way, Claire had to snort out a laugh. “I guess so.”

“So… What do you want to do about it now?” 

“I… don’t know.” Claire stated lowly. “I hadn’t even thought about Jim and Toby being  _ together _ together before. It makes me wonder if they even need me.”

“Oh, trust me, they’re both much better off with you in their lives. I love them, but like I said earlier, they can be idiots sometimes. They need  _ someone  _ to put the breaks on some of their more idiotic ideas.”

Claire had to bite her lip at that. While that wasn’t necessarily a  _ wrong _ statement, it wasn’t exactly  _ right _ either. She had pulled the boys into just as many stupid stunts in the past year.

“It sound like…” Barbara eventually stated, reluctant but determined, “You should take a little break and reevaluate what you want to do, now that it’s slowed down a bit. Take a step back and focus on what you want out of the situation.” 

Spotting the turnoff for the park entrance, Barbara pulled up as close to the cave as she could while being in the shade and turned off the engine. “The ball’s in your court now, as the saying goes. And I know the boys will go with whatever you decide. And no matter what you decide, you’re always welcome to come talk to me. You’re a smart young woman with a bright future, and you can forge whatever path you want to take.”

“Thank you, Barbara.” Claire looked down as she unbuckled herself and opened her door a crack. “You’ve given me a lot to think about.” She silently slipped out of her seat and walked over to the cave, taking lookout in case any park rangers decided to inspect the caves this early in the morning. 

Looking around to make sure everything was good and they were all in shade, Barbara opened the back. “We’re here!” Nomura was the first out, disappearing down the cave tunnel just as quickly as she had arrived to come along on the trip the night previous. 

The next out was Toby, who stopped and sat down on the edge of the truck bed before turning and holding his hand out. “ _ Jim _ ? It’s nearly sunrise.” 

“Right.” He whispered, clutching the fur close in a white knuckled grip before gathering himself. “As agreed, my pelt for my continued freedom, master.” They both ignored Jim’s shaking hands as he handed the furs over, receiving a smile from Toby in response. What none of them expected, was for Jim to double over with a deep groan as soon as he released the fur, tumbling out of the truck and into the dirt below.

“Jimbo!” It was only a few moments of what felt like the world’s worst cramp, but in that time, he was surrounded by his loved ones, Toby gently touching his elbow. “Are you ok?”

“...Ow.” Jim nodded, sitting up and rubbing the base of his horns where some residual aches were. “Yeah, I’m good now, Tobes.”

“Good. That was scary.” Toby punched Jim’s shoulder before stepping back and letting Aaarrrgghh help Jim to his feet. 

Catching sight of his hand as he brought it down from his head, he stared, needing a moment to compute what he was seeing. He was missing his pinky, yes, that was normal… but not from his left hand. Bringing his right hand up, he blinked. They matched. “Huh… So that’s what they meant.” 

“Uh… Jimbo? You’re freaking us out here, man.” Toby spoke up and Jim held out his hands for the shorter to see… even shorter to see. 

“They fixed me.” 

“Yeah, we established that already.” 

“No, you don’t get it.” Jim crouched down to Toby’s level in a comfortable squat, holding out both his hands to Toby. “They fixed the chimerism.” 

Toby’s eyes widened as he looked from one hand, to the other, and then searched Jim’s face. His hair and nose had stayed the same, but his jaw had widened slightly to better accommodate his troll tusks, and his brows had become slightly more prominent. Toby touched his cheek and the texture was now like a normal troll’s stone skin, not so much the thick but still vulnerable leather he had sported before. “So, with the pelt…”

“Mostly human, with some troll traits.” Jim agreed with an enthusiastic nod.

“And like this, a troll with some lingering human ones. Like that unfortunate nose of yours.” Blinky observed, his hand tracing through Jim’s hair as he ignored the boy’s defensive pout about his nose. “And I dare say, your horns have grown in another inch or so. And the possible beginning of a spur or branch, if you decide to keep it.” He murmured, thumb tracing the bump about two inches from the base. He didn’t say anything about Jim’s broadened shoulders that eventually promised a frame that would be less lanky in the future, or his extra six inches in height. That was all par for the course of puberty (or second puberty, in Master Jim’s case). 

“That reminds me, Kiddo. You need an examination before I leave.” Barbara spoke up, eyeing her son’s ‘improved’ features. “You managed to somehow wriggle out of it before you left Arcadia, but that won’t work this time, mister. If I have to, I  _ will _ ask Aaarrrgghh to sit on you so that you will stay still. Capiche, mister?” 

“... Yes mom.” Jim sulked, his ears turning down, but didn’t protest. 

“Mr. Blinky, do you mind helping me? I’m afraid I’ll miss something because I don’t quite understand troll anatomy quite yet.” Barbara asked, turning toward the elder troll.

“Of course, Dr. Barbara, it will be my pleasure. That way I will know what other human traits Master Jim has retained as well.” 

While they discussed details, Toby tapped Aaarrrgghh’s arm and asked him to grab the trunk so that he could put Jim’s pelt away. He had it wrapped around his own shoulders, but it was for the best that it was locked away as soon as possible, just in case. 

“That sounds like a good plan. How about we do it after I get back from returning the truck and grabbing a quick nap in a hotel room? That way we’ll all be refreshed and I won’t miss something stupid.” Because despite the cup of coffee in her system, she was still only running on fumes from her unexpected nap earlier and her hotel room was calling her name oh-so-sweetly.

“Mind if I stay here, Dr. L?” Toby piped up, handing over her keys after tucking away the pelt. 

“I would be more concerned if you wanted to come  _ with  _ me, honestly.” Barbara rebutted, but nodded her approval anyway. “Try to get a nap in the meanwhile. You did just pull an all-nighter, and on a school night too.” Barbara teased and Toby grimaced. These things never happened on a weekend, let alone during an actual school break. 

“Got it, Dr. L.” 

“Ok, I’ll see you all tonight then.” Barbara kissed Jim and Toby’s heads before waving at everyone else and driving off.

* * *

“... Oh, they’re adorable.” Barbara gushed, taking out her phone and taking a quick picture. All three were in the nest, Claire’s laptop propped up on a box serving as their side table, the blank screen facing them. Jim was in the back, serving as Claire’s big spoon, while Toby was on his stomach, snoring face-first into the blankets. Even in his sleep, Jim had reached over and was tracing Toby’s prominent spinal bumps. The boys had foregone overshirts, and in Jim’s case his pants, while Claire slept in one of Jim’s tee-shirts (which fit like a dress) and a pair of shorts. 

Toby’s scales, Barbara was happy to note, had reduced down to a two inch wide stripe on either side of his spine, with his baby spinal ridges their permanently painful looking red. They were only a few shades lighter than his scales, so she wasn’t… too worried about them. Toby still had rough days with his back though, and on those days, all Barbara could do was hand over some slightly stronger than normal pain pills and pray for the boy. 

“I think they’re starting to bud.” Jim whispered, cracking an eye open to look at his mom. “I put some numbing gel on him earlier from here to here.” Jim’s fingers traced lightly from the base of Toby’s neck, to his mid-back, otherwise not moving from his comfortable spot behind Claire. Speaking of, the girl snuffled around a bit, but a couple of strokes down her arm and she fell quiet again. “He said he’s been having more bad days because of it.”

“What kind did you put on?” Barbara asked, taking the chance to look closer at Toby’s back.

“Whatever kind you had in the kit.” Jim gestured to a toolbox-sized first aid kit that Barbara had put together for Claire and her half-troll son, since normal trollish remedies likely wouldn’t cut it for certain things. 

Digging through the kit, Barbara held the tube up for Jim to confirm before reading the label. It was the equivalent to the kind she would recommend to parents of teething toddlers, which, fair, was pretty much what Toby was going through, just with his spine. “I’ll make a note to ask Toby later if he needs me to write out a prescription for something stronger. It looks painful, to be honest. And how are you doing?”

“Better.” Jim smiled, switching to petting Claire from Toby. “I guess I really needed that swim.” While he was doing better about his lies to his mother, he didn’t want to admit that he had been in pain for the past months and hadn’t even known it. He could only imagine what she’d do to Merlin if he were to tell her that this was the first time he’d actually managed to eat something trollish without being horrendously ill afterwards. While various stones, metals, plastics and rubbers had smelled and tasted fantastic, his human stomach had a tendency to reject them. And while he could digest human foods better, it was only if he could get them past his gag reflex first. It was a delicate balance, one that had led to many frustrated mealtimes all around. 

How he had found it out, was because of Toby, actually. Somehow, he had left the den for about ten minutes to explore a bit, and had come back with some troll food to snack on during their movie. Knowing what the food usually did to his system, Jim resisted humoring Toby until near the end of Song of the Sea, where he absently popped a piece of tire rubber in his mouth to chew on like popcorn before realizing what it was. He had spent the rest of the movie and the first half hour of Secret of Kells waiting for his body to reject it, since it usually didn’t take long. When he realized that his body wasn’t reacting like it usually did, he risked a second piece. And then a screw, some wood chunks and pebbles. Nothing. By the time Claire and Toby had demolished the giant bowl of popcorn, he had finished off his bowl of scraps as well.

“Apparently you did.” She hadn’t noticed before, but now that it was gone, she could think back and note that Jim hadn’t been looking well, and just because of the immediate concerns like the battle with Morgana and Gunmar, or the pull of the sea becoming too strong. Jim no longer had a constant pained look on his face, and there was an inner glow to him that wasn’t there before. His stone skin looked more whole, without the micro-cracks that she had thought were normal on young skin. “Think you can wiggle your way out of there so we can get your examination over with?”

Looking down at his two nestmates with a bemused look, Jim could only promise to do his best. With the careful placement of a few pillows and a use of balance that his troll form blessed him with, Jim was eventually able to crawl out of the nest with the minimum amount of disturbing the other two. 

Meeting Barbara in the hallway leading to the nest, she led them out and over to where Blinky’s temporary nest was set up, until his library and home could be built. Inside was significantly larger than Jim’s den, but not near as grand as the library in Arcadia Hearthstone was. Inside was Jim’s trunk, Aaarrrgghh and Blinky, with an array of simple examination tools and a couple pieces of parchment scattered across an otherwise bare table. 

“Right.” Barbara chose her first tool from the selection before turning to face her son, and looking up at his face. “The better you cooperate with me, the faster this goes. And I’ll see what I can do to get you a lollypop if you behave.” She quirked her lips and Jim snorted, but let Barbara led her to a cleared off spot to stand. “First, let’s get some basic measurements. Mr. Blinky, can you write them down for me?”

“Of course.” 

“Thank you. Let’s get your height first. Jim can you stand up straight for- ah, hmm…” She had realized just how much her son had been slouching lately. “Ok, change of plans. Jim, nose to the wall. Aaarrrgghh, I need your help.” She had the Krubera lift her up slightly, so she could use a pencil to mark the top of Jim’s head, sans his horns, on the wall before having him hold the top of the tape measure so that she could measure the wall from mark to floor.

Next, she had him sit down, back straight, so that she could reach as she measured his shoulder width, chest circumference, horn length and base circumference. As well as his waistline and biceps while she was at it. When she was done with all the measurements she thought she needed as a baseline, she moved on to examining his ears and eyes with her normal tool, which pulled a pained snarl from her son when the light shone in his eyes. It did confirm though, that his eyes were changeling-slitted and not human/troll rounded. The light left him half blind, blinking stars out of his eyes for the rest of the exam. His teeth looked healthy and taken care of and his tongue was normal as far as she could tell.

Normally at this point, she would examine his lymph nodes, but as she palpitated his skin, she couldn’t tell what was normal and what wasn’t, so she was forced to turn to Blinky, asking what she would have to look for with a healthy young troll’s skin. “Ah, well, usually at this state of physical growth, there may be the beginnings of some hairline fractures in the skin from rapid growth, otherwise whelp skin is smooth to the touch with minimal pocking from wear. But from how recent his transformation is, his skin would be more along the lines of a newborn whelp. Though, I have noted that some things did transfer over, as well as his wounds from his battle during the Eternal Night. Shirt off please. Lets see how bad the scarring from Morgana truly is.” 

Barbara hadn’t seen Jim’s seal form the previous night, she had no idea what Blinky was on about. She did know that he had been injured, but surely that had been treated and healed months ago, right? “Uh... “ Jim looked between his mother and Blinky, his arms coming up to defend himself as he backed up. “I’m fine, Blink. I’m all healed.”

“Then you won’t mind showing us the scar then. To make note of it in your records, of course.” Jim backed up far enough to bump into Aaarrrgghh, who cradled him gently, but disallowed him to move any further as his mother and foster father moved in. 

“Last chance, Mister. Lose the shirt, or lose it permanently.” Barbara warned, knowing that Jim knew just how fast she was with the ER shears when she wanted to be. His eyes bounced between the two before sighing and undoing the zipper on his hoodie and pulling his tee over his head (getting it stuck on his horns with a frustrated growl in the process). “Thank you.” She patted his cheek before getting her first good look at the wound and having to bite off a gasp.

Blinky sighed, having suspected something like this. “I’ll be right back. I need to mix a batch of putty.” Blinky moved off, pulling down various jars, grateful for having helped Vendel in the past, but cursing Usurna to the Darklands and back for killing the crotchety old goat for the millionth time since her betrayal. 

“How is that not  _ painful?”  _ She was staring. She knew she was staring. There was a literal  _ hole  _ in her baby boy’s chest at least a half-inch deep and covering most of his pectorals. It was cracked like cement under a heavy impact and the raw edges grated together with Jim’s every breath.

“I… it doesn’t hurt nearly as bad as it looks.” That… wasn’t comforting in the least. It still meant that he was in pain.

“Now, normally an injury like this, we would use a technique called scalding, which is to use molten alloys in the wound to help seal it shut, but in Master Jim’s case, his skin isn’t- wasn’t, my apologies- of the right consistency to take such a harsh treatment. With his more recent transformation, he possibly could, but I still feel better using the putty technique instead. It’s a more time-consuming process, but it's what we normally use on whelps still growing into their skin, and thus are a bit more… delicate, shall we say. Now, master Jim, hop up on the slab and lay on your back. You can hang your horns off the top if that is more comfortable for you.” Blinky patted the table with one hand, while mixing something in a large bowl that was steaming.

“Ah.” Blinky caught Barbara staring at the bowl in mild horrified fascination. “It's just a mild exothermic reaction. It’ll continue to heat as it sets. It’s not nearly as hot as the molten alloys and most whelps usually find the heat soothing. I hope that Master Jim will as well. After applying this, though, I  _ will _ have to enforce that he stays on nestrest for the next night or so, to make sure it fully sets.”

“As the doctor orders.” Barbara smirked, watching the entire process as Blinky took… yep, it was literally a _ painting knife _ , and put delicate scoops of the goop into Jim’s cracks, smoothing it down and making sure there were no air bubbles. Jim was very well behaved and didn’t flinch, but did snarl when Blinky had to poke the knife deep into his cracks. It didn’t necessarily hurt, per say, but it did sting like when he would dab a cut with peroxide to clean it out. 

While Blinky worked on his chest, Barbara took the chance to look closer at her son’s skin. It was indeed smooth, except for a series of thin fern-like carvings that branched across his arm and up under his scruff. “What’s this?” She asked, tracing one that wrapped his elbow, up to his bicep.

“Oh? Uh…” Jim looked over at the marking that Barbara was looking at and Blinky moved out of the way so he could trace it himself. “It’s-”

“The truth, mister.” Barbara growled out, knowing that tone of voice.

“My birthday last year, I was hunted by a Stalkling. Remember how it was storming that night? The Stalkling took me up in the storm and I killed it by attracting a lightning bolt.”

Barbara was beyond mad at this point, cycling all the way back to calm. “How are you not dead? I’m assuming you were wearing your armor when that lightning hit you. Your very conductive  _ metal _ armor.”

“Trust me, I asked myself the same thing.” Jim muttered, tracing the fern-like carvings absently, having memorized their design long ago. 

“From what I was told, it was a close thing. Dear Aaarrrgghh was able to catch him at the last moment, preventing a hard landing.” Blinky murmured, stepping back a moment to examine Jim’s chest. It was tempting, what with his chest literally being made of soft putty at the moment, to make Jim’s first carvings in the soft flesh, but no. Blinky used a wetted cloth to make sure that the putty was as smooth as the rest of his skin, barring the natural indentations that formed his pectorals. “Now, Master Jim, you lay there for the next fifteen minutes or so, and then one of us will wrap you up to go, how does that sound?” 

“Ok.” Jim sighed, glad that Blinky was done poking him with the sharp little spade. Resting his arm over his eyes so that he wasn’t looking directly into the chandelier full of glowing crystals, he settled in for not moving for the next while. He had learned, between both his mom and Blinky, that ‘fifteen minutes’ could mean anywhere from an actual fifteen minutes, to an hour or two. At least Blinky was telling the truth about one thing. The mild heat felt wonderful on the dull ache that persisted under the shattered stone skin, letting him release a low purr-growl at the sensation.

“Now, I know that this is a healing technique that you use a lot,” Jim could feel Barbara’s light touch at the edge of the hole, tracing around the seam between putty and skin. “But I’m concerned about the aesthetics of it. Will Jim have this off-colored patch permanently?”

“Not to this degree, no.” Blinky shook his head, looking at grey-peach colored splotch on Jim’s chest. “While it will eventually be a shade or two off, just like the difference in skin color for your human ‘scars’, it will not be a huge difference. At first though, while the putty is still bonding with the stone, the differences will be stark. Eventually, new stone growth will integrate itself with the putty mixture, reacting with it and changing the color to blend with the surrounding stone more naturally. Most cases of putty usage, beyond children, is to fill in carvings that are no longer relevant. Aaarrrgghh’s for example. When he was taken, the Gumm-Gumms sanded and then puttied over his clan markings, before eventually replacing them with their own.” Aaarrrgghh held out his arm for example, showing the slight difference that could only be seen when they were pointed out to her.

“Oh, wow, that really is a flawless transition there.”

“It is.” Blinky nodded in satisfaction before wincing. “Though, it did take several decades to fade to that degree.” At that Jim and Barbara winced too. Jim, because he pretty much had a target now painted on his chest. And Barbara because of just how long it would take. She knew, through asking around, that trolls lived easily for a couple thousand years and a few decades was nothing, but still, it was a long time for her mortal mind to wrap around. 

“Now, what about this ‘scalding’ then? Would that be a faster heal time?”

“Yes, and no.” Blinky waved around a chisel absently, starting to clean the bowl of unused half-congealed putty. “While the scalding technique does seal the wound so that the troll can be up and moving around in a matter of hours, the sheen from the metals is semi-permanent. Very popular with the warrior classes, I can assure you.”

“...That brings a whole new definition to the phrase ‘shiny brand-new scar.’” Barbara stated dryly, glad that Blinky had chosen the method he did.

“Indeed it does, Dr. Barbara.” Blinky shared the humor, managing to chip away a solidified chunk of putty and handed it over to Barbara to inspect. The piece did indeed feel similar to troll skin, with a pliability similar enough that it wouldn’t crack unless Jim somehow managed to move the wrong way. “Now, while I do know how it works with troll skin, I am concerned with Jim’s shi-err… abilities, and how they would affect him the next time he has to… Umm…” On one hand, Blinky wanted to be frank, but on the other, he was aware that Jim wanted Merlin kept in the dark. 

“I’ll just have to be careful.” Jim spoke up for his mother. “I’ll take it slow the first time to make sure that the patch holds, and then we’ll go from there.” He looked over from under his arm, his blue eyes glowing in the shade. “I know how to take checks of my body when I have to.” 

Barbara pursed her lips but nodded anyway. It’s not like she could stop him, nor would she when it came to his health. She had done that once before, but never again. “Ok. Now, I think that’s probably been enough time. Blinky?” 

The troll poked at the putty a bit, applying a little pressure to see if it yielded. When it didn’t, Blinky nodded and helped Jim carefully sit up, not wanting to put any strain on the half-cured patch to make it wrinkle or crack. Aaarrrgghh handed over a sheet of wet leather, slathered in a poultice that Blinky had set him to mix together, which consisted of various clays and some healing herbs, to help the putty integrate in with Jim’s skin better. The poultice made the leather cling to Jim’s torso without much help, but Blinky took his time smoothing it into place before handing a large roll of gauze over for Barbara to wrap him with. Normally, they would use leather strips, but the gauze covered the wound more thoroughly and he knew that Jim wouldn’t be moving around too much in the upcoming days if he said the right words to Fair Claire in the meanwhile.

“Now, that should do it.” Barbara nodded herself, inspecting her work. Jim’s entire torso, from the bottom of his ribs to both of his shoulders were covered in gauze, sealing the leather patch firmly in place. “Now, no athletics for the next couple of days while that cures, mister.”

“Yes, Mom.” Jim nodded, hopping off the table and reaching for his shirt. “Uh, are we done here?” He asked, holding up his shirt to ask if he could get dressed again.

“For now.” Barbara finally acquiesced, after giving it a thorough thought and mental checkthrough. 

“Ok.” Carefully pulling his shirt over his head, but leaving his jacket unzipped for the moment, Jim tilted his head. “Are you heading back soon?”

“Unfortunately.” Barbara quirked a smile. “Poor Walt’s been alone with the babies for two days now. I should go rescue him soon.” 

Ducking his head down to Barbara’s level, he gave his mother a peck on the cheek. “Thanks for coming then.”

“It’s not a problem, sweetie. We all miss you, you know.” She pressed a hand to his cheek and he leaned into the touch.

“I know. But the hearthstone's here now.” Jim led Barbara back to his own nest, gently prodding Toby awake so that he could leave also.

“It all leads back to the east coast, doesn’t it?” Barbara mused softly to herself, watching her boys interact. Toby was trying to swat away Jim’s roving fingers while cuddling equally between the blankets of the nest and Claire with a whine.

“What did you say, Dr. Barbara?”

“Nothing for you to worry about, Mr. Blinky. Just an observation.” She gave the troll a smile before pushing herself from the wall and helping Jim wake Toby and attempt to leave Claire alone to sleep in. Claire was having none of it, though, and was already awake since Jim had left. Cracking open an eye, she watched the two Lakes before rolling her eyes and just outright shoving Toby off the nest with an oomph.

Toby squawked, finally startling awake after finding himself suddenly on a cold stone floor. “Uh, wha?”

“Morning Tobes!”

“Ready to head back home?” Barbara asked softer, stroking his hair out of his face when he hissed while rolling upright.

“Uh, yeah, Ju-just gimme a minute.” He muttered, rubbing his face and looking around for his overshirt. Jim was the one to eventually find it, shoved behind a box of his own clothes. Playing with his buttons instead of putting his shirt on, Toby eventually took a steadying breath and nodded to himself before looking up at Barbara. “D-do you think I can stay the rest of the weekend, Dr. L?”

“Um, well…” It was a Thursday, after all, and with the switch in sleeping schedules, he would be all but useless going to school Friday. “I don’t mind, but Mr. Blinky will be the one hosting you.” 

Toby turned his big grass green eyes to Blinky and pouted. He crumpled like a wet sack. “You are welcome as long as Dr. Barbara allows you to be here, Tobias.” To which Toby looked back at Barbara. 

“First thing’s first: how caught up are you on your homework?” To which Toby grimaced and looked away. “Ok. I’m fine with it, so long as Jim and Claire let you do your work while you’re over here. I’ll have the teachers email you your assignments that can be done without your books, but you will have your assignments caught up in time for classes Monday, understand?”

“Yes, Dr. L.”

“That being said, either Walt, Aaarrrgghh or Mr. Blinky will bring you back Sunday, say, around noon, so that you can get the rest of your homework done. Will that work?” 

Mentally tallying up the assignments that he knew of, Toby eventually nodded. 

“Good.” Giving Toby a hug, then Jim, she turned back to the shorter. “And no roughhousing this weekend. Mr. Blinky just puttied his chest wound, so he has to let that set for the next couple of days.” She turned to Claire. “And that goes for you too. I know Jim hates it, but please try to keep him in bed.”

“Will do, Barbara!” Claire saluted, making Barbara smile sadly.

“Claire… can I speak to you for a moment.”

“Um… Sure…”

“You’re not in trouble. I just want to say something.” Barbara gave the girl a reassuring look, holding out her arm for the girl to join her. Reluctantly, Claire joined Barbara, letting the elder wrap an arm around her shoulders while she led her out of the nest. Stepping outside and far enough away that those inside couldn’t hear them, Barbara turned to Claire and studied the girl’s face with a small smile. “I’m so glad that Jim chose you.”

“Thank… you?” Claire was confused, not used to getting this look from anyone except her grandmother.

Barbara hummed, brushing a lock of hair out of the girl’s face. “After James, I never thought I’d have a daughter. I have my boys, but now there’s you too. And from what I’ve seen so far, I’m looking forward to see how you’ll grow into yourself. I’m not pressuring you to say yes to Jim and Toby’s relationship, or to even stay with Jim, since you are your own person first, but I will say that you are a big part of those boys lives. They’ve left you with a couple of big decisions on your shoulders. And whether you decide to stay friends with them, or become something more, they, and we, will stand by your decision.

“That being said.” Barbara fidgeted with a ring on her pinky, spinning it around a few times before eventually pulling it off. “I want you to have this. Traditionally, it’s given from a mother to her firstborn daughter, and so on, when they reach womanhood, but since Jim and Toby are definitely boys, it just wasn’t right to pass it on to them.” Barbara held out the silvery ring, letting Claire seeing the design moulded into the band.

“It’s called a claddagh. It represents the faith, loyalty and love to others, and more importantly, to yourself.”

“It’s beautiful.” Claire looked at it closer, realizing that the heart was, in fact, a heart-shaped diamond. “But I can’t take it, it’s yours.”

“Nonsense. It’s my privilege to give this to you. And if you don’t want to wear it, you can keep it in your jewelry box like a little insurance policy. At least, that’s what my mother told me when she gave that ring to me the night of my Debutante ball.” Claire choked a bit at that. As much as her mother wanted it, Claire wasn’t quite eligible to be included in the nearby Debutante ball, but for Barbara to be presented said a lot about just what type of family she had eloped away from. “And then I met James and  _ that _ all got shot to hell, but that’s a story for another time.” Barbara waved off, like she hadn’t just dropped a bomb like that. 

“I… thank you.” Deciding to take the gift for what it was, Claire tried it on her fingers, finally settling on her pointer finger, the crown facing her palm.

Taking Claire’s hand, Barbara smiled. “It looks beautiful on you. Thank  _ you _ , for accepting this token.” She squeezed Claire’s hand before gesturing back to the cave. “Now let's get back in there so I can leave.”

Inside, the boys eagerly welcomed her back into the nest, Toby talking about what they would/could be doing for the rest of the weekend. “...And then we can spar, since it’s been a while.” He grinned, pulling out the compact handle of his warhammer. “I’ve been practicing, but it’s just not the same without sparring you two.”

“Ah… I’m supposed to stay in the nest for the rest of the weekend, Doctor’s orders.” Jim grimaced, putting his hand on his chest and rubbing lightly over the fabric.

“Oh.” Toby deflated and looked confused. “Is it, y’know, because of the...  _ selkie _ ,” Toby fingerspelled, “Because usually you bounce right back from that, better than ever.”

“No. Mom finally saw the damage from Morgana’s spell and Blinky puttied it over. I’m supposed to try to stay still while it sets.” Both Toby and Claire grimaced at that, having seen the white starburst on his chest in seal form. Claire had seen the chest wound once, when Jim’s armor first came off, but that was the only time, and Jim had implied that it had been healing fine on its own. The rest of the time since then, he had managed to keep a shirt on around her at all times. 

“How bad was it?” Toby asked in a hushed voice. 

Jim traced the outline over most of his chest, having long ago memorized the dimensions. “It looked like cracked cement when something heavy gets dropped on it.” Claire was the one to describe it, startling Jim while Toby nodded in understanding. 

“So quiet things and cuddling are up for this weekend then.”

“That, and homework.” Claire added, giving both her boys  _ looks _ , making them both dip their heads.

“And on that note, Aaarrrgghh and I really should be heading off.” Barbara spoke up, finished with her conversation between the adult trolls. 

Aaarrrgghh, having just managed to squeeze himself into Jim’s den, grimaced and grumbled, turning around to head straight back out, but not before giving Jim and Claire a nuzzle and Toby a fistbump. “Sunday.” He reminded Toby, patting the shortest on the head. “Hate gyre.” He mumbled, shuffling his way out of the tunnel.

“I guess working on making the tunnel wider is out of the question then…” Jim watched Aaarrrgghh go, the troll struggling to fit.

“ **Absolutely not** .” Both Blinky and Barbara protested in unison, making them blink in shock before Blinky continued. “You are to let that putty cure until at least when Tobias has to leave, Master Jim, and after that, you will be on light exercises for the next week. Besides, the size of your tunnel is currently your first defense for a troll your size and age. Aaarrrgghh will manage just fine as it is until you manage to build the rest of your den. Your entrance tunnel should be the  _ last _ thing you expand on.”

“Oh...kay.” Jim curled in on himself slightly. While what Blinky had said struck true, he hadn’t realized it until the elder troll had said so. “Yes, Blinky.” Blinky gave a firm nod, stepping aside so that Barbara could say her goodbyes. 

“Behave you two.” She stated, giving her boys a hug and kisses on the cheek. “Claire, you’re responsible for them. They’ll actually listen to you.” She instructed, giving the girl a hug as well.

“Yes Barbara.” Claire chirped through her boys sputtering, giving the elder a salute. 

After watching Blinky escort Barbara out, Jim gently grabbed Claire’s hand to inspect the shiny that he had seen out of the corner of his eye when she saluted. “Oh.” Jim was reverent, running his thumb over the familiar ring. “It suits you.” He murmured, giving her fingers a gentle kiss. “Did mom tell you that wearing the ring certain ways is supposed to mean different things?”

“Oh. No, she didn’t.” Claire looked at the ring herself as Jim pulled her into his lap. Now she was worried about what she was saying with the stupid ring.

“How you’re wearing it now, means that you’re single and ready to mingle.” Toby leaned over, inspecting the ring himself.

“But turning the heart inward, means that you’re committed, but not yet engaged or married, since its on the right hand.” Jim added, stroking up her finger in a small sign of affection. 

“And how would I wear it if I wanted to say ‘it’s complicated’.” She asked, looking between the two boys, Toby giving her a big grin.

“You can wear it however you like.” Jim insisted, “It’s all up to you, anyway.”

“Speaking of, your Mom said that this was given to her at her Debutante ball?” 

“Yeah.” Jim nodded, confirming the story but not freely giving any more information.

“You’ve never told me about your Mom’s side of the family before.”

“No, I haven’t.” Jim agreed.

“Can you tell me about your grandmother then?” Jim wrinkled his nose, but nodded reluctantly.

“Dame Diana Lake. Old world money, and the royal attitude to match. Set up Mom to be engaged with a ‘friend of the family’ before dad happened. I’ve only met her a few times, since mom was disowned.

“I thought Lake was your dad’s name?” 

Jim shook his head. “Sturgis. Mom never dropped her maiden name, so that’s what she got her doctorate under.”

“Jimbo here’s actually named for his great grandpa.” Toby piped up, Jim nodding in agreement.

“It’s technically James Lake the second, but junior is a bit more… less uppercrust? I think Mom named me this way, trying to appease Grandmatron. It didn’t work, obviously. 

“And your Grandpa? Would he be Duke Lake then?” Toby laughed at that and Jim grinned and shook his head. 

“That, I want to keep a surprise. Grand Sire and I get along, so I’ll introduce you next time he’s stateside. He caught the travel bug a while ago, and he hasn’t settled in one place since.”

“Jimbo used to travel with his Grand Sire every summer. This was actually the first summer that he didn’t since he was eight.”

“It’s not like you didn’t come with us most of the time after, Tobes.” Jim leaned back, comfortable in his storytelling. “We spent one summer visiting as many volcanoes as we could. Gatto wasn’t the first time we visited Ojos Del Salado, but it was the first time we were underground for it.” Jim shrugged, “But most of the time, I end up staying a few weeks in Soho with… extended family.”

“Wait, you don’t think…” Toby asked, waving his hands, his eyes wide.

“Likely. Possible. He looks more Scots clan, but I’ve been meaning to ask around.”

“...Who are we talking about?” 

“Strickler.” Jim stated. “I have a theory that he’s not actually a troll. Or that he’s from a rare troll clan. Have you ever noticed that the only other trolls we’ve run across with wings are stalklings, and they’re more- sorry Tobes- dragon-like than anything?”

“No problem.” Toby waved off the observation.

“I… Yeah, now that you mention it. I just assumed that the changeling process changed him a lot from being a stalkling?”

“Possibly.” Jim mused, “but I have some other theories as well. But I don’t really want to say anything until I have a better idea of what I’m looking at.” Jim grimaced, but quickly relaxed into reluctant acknowledgement. “Besides, It’s not like Strickler is going anywhere any time soon, so it’s not an emergency puzzle we have to figure out immediately.” 

Claire nodded reluctantly, trying to find a subject change before lighting up. “You said extended family? Tell me about them.”

Jim laughed, Toby joining in shortly afterward. “Grandsire… the rest of his family died a long, long time ago, so he was adopted into a clan in london. They run a bookstore in Soho that I think you might actually like.” He looked at Claire out of the corner of his eye. “Most of the books they sell are about occult, mysticism and magic. Then there’s  _ his _ best friend, Griff, that’s been traveling with him for as long as I can remember. Griff always wanted to see the world and not stick to the books like the rest of the clan.”

“And didn’t you recently discover an uncle?” Toby asked, enjoying Jim descriptions.

“Yeah. We all thought this one uncle that practically raised my Grandsire had died a long time ago. Turns out he’s still alive and kicking… and just as crazy as I was told he was… yeah.” Jim was still smiling, but Claire could easily see the cracks that were forming.

“Well, at least you don’t have to see any family you don’t want to?”

“I guess. Becoming half-monster does have its perks, after all.” 

“Jim, no!” Claire pushed Jim onto his back and laid on top of him, glaring up at him from where her head was propped up on his chest. “You are  _ not  _ a monster. You are a half-troll, yes, but you are still Jim. Still yourself and anyone who says differently is wrong. Including you.” 

Toby sat off to the side, watching the situation with a reluctant look in his eyes. He had missed so much. This sounded like an argument with an air of being repeated often, yet this was the first time he had heard it, and it hurt. He wanted to jump in and help Claire make Jim see reason, but she looked like she had the situation well in hand. She had been doing this, alone, for months now. 

“Your family will still love you, Jimbo.” He finally spoke, reaching over where he could and brushing some of Jim’s hair to the side. “They respected you before, and nothing about that will change. Heck, some of them might actually love to spar you, now that you’ve finally learned how to fight!” 

Grabbing Claire, Jim rolled to his side and stuck out his tongue. So many years avoiding learning how to fight, and it was dear old Merlin’s amulet that broke that promise. It made him even more appreciative of Aaarrrgghh’s vow to pacifism. There was fighting when you wanted to, and then there was fighting when you needed to. And that difference was a huge one.

“Grandsire will be thrilled.” Jim drawled, curling up around Claire as Toby set up the laptop for another movie, sensing that talking time was over. 

“...Why do you call him that?” Claire whispered, quietly enough for the boys to ignore if they wanted to, earning an amused huff from Jim and a chuckle from Toby.

“Mostly to piss off my Grandmatron. Following her rules to the letter and not the spirit. He is my Grand  _ sire _ .” Which answered… nothing. Claire would just have to put it down to another one of Jim’s quirks. At least it was an amusing one. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of Idir Muir. Just a short chapter after this, and then I'll be seeing Y'all in the next story!


	6. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dammit Jim, pick up your phone.

“Oh, thank Deya you’re back!” Blinky rushed over to the gyre and helped Claire down the last handful of steps before sweeping her off her feet in an enthusiastic hug. “Master Jim has been truly unbearable in your absence! He won’t eat, he won’t sleep, yesterday he nearly fell off the side of a cliff during training! Not to mention he’s frightened half of trollmarket with his attitude.”

“...I was only gone a week, Blinky.”

“Yes, but did Master Jim know that?” Aaarrrgghh was unloading some boxes and bags, only getting an absent greeting from his mate in his worry.

“I tried to call him, but he wasn’t picking up.  _ And _ he ignored all my texts.” 

“Ah, well…” Blinky grimaced when Claire put her hands on her hips with an unimpressed look. “I see.” 

“...Did he think I was moving back in with my parents?”

“I, well… Um…” Claire raised her brow. “Yes, apparently.” 

Sighing, Claire shook her head and ran a hand down her face. “Right. Do you mind helping me with these? I have an idiot to smack with a broom handle, apparently.” She took up an overstuffed backpack and a purple rolling suitcase and started her way into the main market at a determined stride, Blinky following with two decent-sized cardboard boxes and Aaarrrgghh took the back with two military duffles stuffed to the brim. 

She didn’t notice, but the two trolls did, the wave of relief sweeping through the stands at the sight of the tiny human female. Maybe their Trollhunter would calm into his more personable attitude now that his mate was back. 

The first thing that she noticed when she drew the curtains to their small den aside, was the gravel. The path to their den itself was cleared, yes, but it looked like there had been a rockslide or something where there was once a curving wall. Looking closer, she saw that the stone hadn’t cleaved itself at a fragile point, but instead there were what she would have normally assumed were tool marks, “Stress digging.” Aaarrrgghh pointed out, feeling along the rough claw marks above the stone detrus. 

“Ah, yes, that was most of day two and three, I believe.” Blinky hummed, amused at the whelp’s actions, now that he wasn’t in the thick of it. “And five. Possibly earlier today too, but I’ve usually been growled out by now, so he must have passed out.” 

Indeed, there was a snoring echoing off the caves, meaning that Jim was sleeping in a weird position again. With a sigh, Claire dumped her backpack and suitcase in an out of the way corner and grabbed up the sorely neglected broom, marching into the den proper. There was a thwap, a startled yelp, then the sound of broom handle rattling between a pair of horns. “Get up, you sulky baby, you’re getting rockdust all over the sheets!”

“Ow! Claire! Claire…? You’re back!” Jim chirped, only for another thwap to be his greeting.

“I clean up.” Aaarrrgghh volunteered, shaking his head and moving the bags off to the side before picking up the largest rock and moving it outside the den’s entrance to be disposed of later.

“I think I’ll help you, dear friend. I would not wish to be in Master Jim’s shoes at the moment.” Aaarrrgghh hummed in amusement, pressing his forehead to Blinky’s for a proper greeting.

“No. Big trouble.”

* * *

Striding into the den, Jim was indeed snoring, passed out across their nest in a way that it really shouldn’t be lain on. His head was propped up by his horns, forcing his head forward and pinching his neck, making the snores. Taking careful aim, she smacked him between the horns with her broom handle. Knowing from experience it wouldn’t hurt him, it still managed to startle him into rolling over with a yelp and curling around his abused face, exposing his horns and pointing them straight up. In a move she had learned from Barbara, she then rattled the handle between the horns in a move meant to annoy but not much else.

“Get up you sulky baby, you’re getting rock dust all over the sheets!” And he was. Just a week previous, they were freshly laundered, but now they were all the same dulled dust-grey as when they were first carving out the den. Which meant that Jim hadn’t made the effort to even attempt to clean up after himself. 

Not bothering to resist the temptation, she then whacked him across the darrierre, making him sit up with a yelp and finally look over with a whine. “Claire!” It took a moment, but then he realized that she really was there. “Claire…?” He jumped up and rushed over to hug her, but was stopped at the last moment by the broom held defensively. “You’re back!... right?” 

Claire sighed, smacking Jim’s chest one last time to prove her point before nodding and letting Jim hug her and get rock dust all over her clothes as well. “Yeah, I’m back, you sulky selkie. And you would have known that too, if you would have just picked up your phone.”

“Ah, hehe, right.” Jim cast down his eyes, rubbing the back of his head. “Sorry. I thought you were going home.”

“I did go home.”

“...Oh…”

“To visit my parents and Enrique, and to get some of my stuff that I didn’t want to haul cross country during the move.”

“...Yeah. I guess that makes sense.”

* * *

“Hey Blinky?” Claire bit her lip, watching the elder program the gyre while Jim and Toby were having their goodbye. “... Do you have room for one more?” 

“...Miss Claire?” Blinky didn’t know what to think, having caught her distant and deep in thought several times over the past weekend, watching the boys instead of interacting with them.

“It’s just… Barbara gave me a lot of things to think about. About Jim and Toby. And with the gyre now running between Arcadia and here, I thought, maybe, that I should probably visit my parents. And I haven’t seen Enrique in months, either. Papa told me that he said his first word last month, and I’m missing so much…”

“You don’t have to explain to me, Claire.” Blinky held up a hand in understanding. “It’s hard to be away from your loved ones when you’re used to seeing them every day.” 

“I… yes, it is.” 

“So… this is a visit then, yes?” He had to confirm, if only for Master Jim’s sake.

“Yes. Just a visit.” Claire nodded, to which Blinky nodded back.

“Then of course. There will always be room on the gyre for you.” He moved aside, letting her take a seat on the bench, absently noticing that she didn’t bring any bags with her.

“Ready to go, Blin-Claire, what are you doing up here?” Toby cut himself off, rushing over to the other teen and giving her a hug- but only after pausing for her permission first.

“I figured I’d go visit my parents, since the gyre’s working.” Claire stated, brushing her hair streak behind an ear. 

“Is this about… y’know? The beach?” He asked, taking a seat next to her on the bench.

“That too, I guess. Barbara said something while we were talking, so I’m taking a step back and thinking about where to go from here next. That, and I realized that I miss my family.” 

“Got it.” Toby nodded, getting comfortable for the relatively short trip. “Hey… does Jimbo know you’re doing this?”

“I… no, I haven’t said anything.” Claire realized, wincing. “Just a minute, Blinky!” Hopping over the rail and down the stairs, she caught herself by wrapping her arms around Jim’s waist.

“Hey, Claire, saying goodbye to Tobes?” Jim asked with a grin, rotating in her arms so that he could wrap his own arms around her.

“Not exactly.” Claire shook her head, looking down before she gathered herself. “I’m going to go visit my family, since the gyre’s up and running.”

“Oh.” Jim’s face fell slightly, his arms going slightly limp. “Yeah, I guess you can go back to Arcadia now, if you want.”

“Yep.” Claire chirped, reaching up to kiss her boyfriend. After a long moment, he complied and bent down to her level. “I won’t be missing any more of Enrique’s milestones, since I can be there to see them.” 

“...That’s great.” Jim’s smile was fragile. “Tell them hi for me.” 

“Oh, don’t worry, I will.” Claire grinned, pulling out of Jim’s arms. “I’ll see you in a bit then.” 

“Yeah… ok.” He waved them off, his expression dropping as the gyre left. He slowly sunk into a crouch, which was the position that Blinky was greeted with a handful of minutes later.

“Tobias and Claire are delivered safely to dear Aaarrrgghh’s capable hands.” Blinky patted Jim on the head. “Now, let's work on those particulates that seem to be giving you so much trouble, eh?”

* * *

“You came back.” Jim repeated for at least the dozenth time that night, stopping from helping Claire unpack to give her a hug.

“I came back.” Claire nodded, not even bothering to move from where she was unburying something from one of the military duffles, shoving clothes off to the side. He had been doing this all night, stopping randomly to state the same phrase and hug her. At first, she had hugged him back and given him kisses, but she wanted to get her unpacking done sooner than later. And besides, this was more important… if she could find where she had buried the thing. 

“Aha!” about halfway down the second military duffle (She had borrowed them from Barbara and decided she didn’t  _ want  _ to know where the bags came from), she pulled a package and handed it over to Jim, who took it cautiously.

“What is this?”

“A care package. I figured, since I was there, I’d visit all our friends. This is what they wanted me to give you.” 

“Oh. Ok?” she had to prod him a couple times, but Jim eventually unwrapped the package. In it were several shirts that were even too big for him, proclaiming various shops and events in Arcadia, as well as a handful of ‘gourmet’ forks from Toby and a few different baubles from various other classmates, making Jim grin. “You were intending to come back.”

“Yes, Jim, I was.” Claire gave an exasperated sigh with a small but fond smile. “I just wanted to visit my family, and think about Me, You, and Toby.

“O-oh?” Jim’s face fell slightly.

“Jim?” Claire crawled forward, looking up at Jim from an intentionally lower position. “I came back. I want to see what happens next.” 

Lunging forward, Jim gathered her into a big hug, cuddling her close. “Thank you. For giving us -me- a chance.” 

“Yes.” Claire grinned. “Just don’t go all ‘crispy’ on me again, and we’ll call it good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of Idir Muir, and I can't wait to see you in the other stories! -Dark

**Author's Note:**

> Omake:
> 
> “Dude, you’re a lobster!” 
> 
> “Tobes… what the hell are you talking about?”
> 
> “Well, you’re effectively immortal now. You won’t die of natural causes any time soon. Have a hard exterior, but you’re just as soft and squishy little sea creature as you’ve always been on the inside. Plus…”
> 
> “Tobes, this is worse than your Nougat Nummy metaphor.”
> 
> “Did you know that some lobsters are blue?” 
> 
> “...night Tobes.” 
> 
> “Aww, come on, it’s only like two am!”
> 
> “And you’re obviously sleep deprived. Good. Night. Tobes.”


End file.
